


Rise as One

by wildforce71



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, Power Rangers Wild Force, Power Rangers in Space
Genre: Additional tags as I post, Don't say I didn't warn you, I know right, I mean it's not graphic or anything, I wrote m/m, M/M, Post-Apocalyptic, Yes you read that tag right, but some people do die, but still, gets dark in places, nothing is really graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-02-20 22:53:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 49
Words: 54,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2446115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildforce71/pseuds/wildforce71
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>We will walk out of this darkness; feel the spotlight glowing like a yellow sun. And when we fall, we fall together, till we get back up and we will rise as one.</i>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When the unthinkable happens, Earth's Rangers must band together to find a way to survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Shattered

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: This fic is set sometime between Proo and PRS; flashbacks take place early enough before PRS that there has been no Nighlok activity yet, and the main body of the fic is some months after that.

_Every Ranger on Earth heard the call._

_The Rangers who were left, anyway. The invasion was quick and thorough and completely devastating. No one had any warning; not Earth's various alien allies, not Wes and Eric, nothing from Time Force or SPD. For all intents and purposes, Earth stood alone._

_They fought back, of course. They were Earth's Rangers, after all. Even when their powers failed they fought. Even when every zord and vehicle they had simply stopped they fought. When their weapons and suits and armour vanished they fought with fists and feet and teeth and sticks and stones, desperate to take down just one more invader, to save just one more civilian, to stave off defeat for just one more heartbeat._

_Between them, those Seconds and Sixths who were left standing forced their Reds to retreat. Tommy Oliver had to be dragged from the field by his teams; only the pleading of his fourth Yellow persuaded him in the end._

_Those who had strongholds – in Mariner Bay, in San Angeles, in the academies of Blue Bay Harbour and Ocean Bluff – retreated to them, taking civilians and Rangers alike with them. But the water that protected against demons did not slow these invaders. The weapons and defenses of the Hartford Mansion did not hold. And shields against satellites could not hide the academies for long._

_And then the call. The rangers were powerless now, but the call still echoed in their hearts and souls, sure and unmistakable. Every ranger still alive stood, and turned to look, and all as one they spoke three words._

We are coming.

_They took the civilians they'd saved and the supplies they had, and all of them, every one, left their hiding places and travelled to a mountain range outside Angel Grove, to a world of tunnels and rooms and protections nothing could get through. And all of them, every one, wore or carried a useless morpher; some more than one._

_And all of them, every one, was met by Tommy Oliver and welcomed to the New Command Center._

_No team escaped unscathed. Every team lost someone. But together they are strong. Together they fight. And together, they will win._

 

Joel announced himself while he was still almost the length of the room away, but Dana didn't look up. He didn't question her, sliding down the wall to sit beside her, almost but not touching, and waited her out.

He'd never been patient before.

She sniffed finally, raising her head. Joel had mimicked her knees up posture, but more loosely, and she felt herself relax just looking at him.

"Wanna tell me?" he asked softly.

"It's stupid," she muttered.

"Join the club. I could get Ryan or Kelsey."

"Ryan's in class." She glanced around, picking up a sheet of paper and offering it to him. Joel skimmed it, frowned, and went back to the top to read it more closely. "Stupid thing to cry over, isn't it?"

"Where'd you get it?"

"One of Mia's kids wrote it. I guess it's cathartic? She wants to put it up in one of the common areas, but she wanted to check with a Ranger and I was the first one she saw."

"You don't want it up?"

"I don't know what I want. I'll ask..." she thought for a moment. "Adam, maybe."

"Yeah," Joel agreed, "or just tell Mia no. She's not gonna question you."

Dana scooted closer, laying her head on his shoulder and playing absently with the Lightspeed Rescue patch on his jacket. "I guess."

Anyone who could wore their team uniform, and anyone else wore their team emblem. Casey, Theo and Dom wore their training uniforms, and Camille wore the Pai Zhua logo. Rose and Spencer wore Operation Overdrive's emblem. Kelsey's red jacket had been too badly torn to be salvaged; she'd found something similar and drawn the Lightspeed logo on herself. Joel wore the Galaxy Rangers and Time Force emblems as well, to remember their joined battles; some other Rangers had followed suit, but most of them stuck to their own team.

"It's nearly dinner time," Joel murmured after a while. "Ryan will be looking for you." He leaned over to kiss her forehead lightly. "Want me to intercept him?"

"No," Dana said softly.

"Sure?"

"Yeah. It's fine. Thanks." She held out a hand for him to help her up.

Ryan had burnt out his voice screaming demon curses early in the First Attack, trying to cast spells that were never meant for human forms. He'd barely spoken since, almost never made a sound, and more often than not he was within arms' reach of Dana.

"On the plus side," she said, vaguely aware that she was answering a thought rather than a sentence, "He's a half decent nurse."

"Yeah, between him and the Fernandez kid it's practically a real hospital, right?"

"Artist's hands," Dana said with a faint smile. "Come on. Let's go."


	2. Destruction

Danny stood, stretching his back briefly. Casey paused, looking at him questioningly, and he shook his head. "Just stretching. I'm fine." Casey nodded and he turned back to loading the supplies into the hand cart.

The Warriors didn't seem to worry about hand pulled trailers, so the rangers usually used them for supplies. Danny was generally on those teams to help lift and carry and pull. It didn't bother him much; it was something useful he could do, and as long as they got whatever was on the list no one minded if he did a little extra foraging on the side.

He didn't much like being outside, though. Angel Grove, home to six years of Ranger teams and soaked in Morphin' energy, had seen fiercer fighting than most other places. Few buildings were left standing, and destroyed cars and bits of building littered the streets. At least the darkness hid most of the damage.

And, terrible as it was to even think, at least the Warriors had removed most of the bodies. It made it much worse for anyone who was missing someone, but Danny wasn't sure he could have handled these trips otherwise.

He piled the last case into the trolley, looking around. "Hey, Carlos?"

"Yeah," Carlos said absently, counting packages.

"We're done. I'm just going to..." He gestured towards the nearby building.

"Three minutes. Take a torch and be careful."

"Thanks."

The building, miraculously mostly standing, was a garden centre. The plants, neglected for too long, were mostly dead; Danny didn't stop, heading for the racks of seeds at the back. The hydroponics bays still had some problems, but they were mostly up and running. So far, though, they were only producing fruit and vegetables, and Danny planned to change that.

He picked out arnica and chamomile, elderberry and eucalyptus, feverfew, liquorice, and a dozen others. They probably wouldn't all grow, but some of them might, and they might be useful.

He stopped in the garden furniture section and picked up a bunch of solar lights, too. They used various systems of generating power, and they had just about enough, but anything they could do to conserve it helped.

He'd been longer than three minutes, but Carlos just nodded when he came back. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

He nodded again, glancing over the team to make sure everyone was back. "We're ready, Casey."

Casey glanced up from where he was talking with Jason by the second trailer. "Great. Let's get going."

Danny lifted the handles on the trailer, waiting to make sure nothing was going to fall off, and then waiting another minute while Casey redistributed Jason's load. "Ready," Casey called finally, and Danny started back towards the base.

At the base of the hills they stopped, unloading the trailers and passing out the supplies to the dozen volunteers. They headed in groups of two or three to different entrances, each far enough from the next to hopefully confuse any patrols that might happen to see them. They rarely saw patrols at night, which was why they tended to go out then, but no one let their guard down.

Danny took the seeds and solar lights as well as his share of the boxes. He followed Casey and Jason to the highest entrance, half listening as they discussed what they had and hadn't found.

Rocky met them inside, glancing over their supplies. "Great. Justin's been looking for those. Take them down to the lab if you don't mind, Casey." Casey nodded, taking one of Jason's boxes and his own and heading into the depths of the NCC.

"Hey, solars," Rocky said, impressed. "Good one, Danny. I'll get them passed around the entrances, they can sit out during the day." Catching sight of the seed packets, he grinned. "Go ahead and take them to hydroponics, if you want. There's not much else to do here."

"Thanks," Danny said with a grin, carefully piling the solar lights neatly by the wall and heading into the maze of corridors.

Hydroponics was deep underground, far enough down that it was probably almost at the base of the mountain. Danny liked it down there; no one came down unless they were working there, so it was usually quiet and mostly empty. Justin was often there tinkering with the systems, but he was easy company. Sometimes Xander was there; he was a good worker, and Danny mostly left him alone to follow his instincts.

No one was in the aeroponics room this evening; the watering systems were misting lightly and the air was cool and smelt of green. Danny checked the racks as he walked past, brushing water from some of the leaves so that they could stand up straight and shifting others very slightly to get the best flow. The system was constantly in flux as the plants grew, or failed to, and the systems were refined.

He was busy potting his new seeds on the bench at the back of the cavernous room when Xander wandered in. "Hey, boss."

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Danny asked, trying to tilt his wrist enough to see his watch past the cuff of his glove. "It's late, right?"

"It's late," Xander agreed. "But you always come down here after you've been outside, so I thought I'd come and see if you wanted help." He picked up the packets, fanning them in his hands to study the labels. "Medicinal herbs. Good thinking."

"Do I always come down here?"

"Yeah. We've all got our things, right? Can I help or d'you want to do it yourself?"

"I kind of want to do it myself," he admitted.

"Cool. Company or solo?"

"Go to bed, Xander. It's late."

"Don't stay up too late, bossman." He saluted, wandering off again.

"He's right, you know." Max bounced up to sit on the counter, studying the pots and packets spread out there. "It is late."

"Hey, Max. Where've you been?"

"Oh, around. You know me. What are you doing?"

"Potting."

"What's this one?"

"Arnica. Good for bruises. I mean, good for healing bruises."

"And this one?"

"Thyme. Antiseptic and it's good for coughs. I don't know if it'll grow, it needs a lot of sun usually. UV lights just aren't quite the same somehow."

"Well, if anyone can get it to grow, you can," Max said cheerfully. "You know what you should do? Go shoot some hoops. When's the last time you had fun?"

"I have fun," Danny protested.

"You work and worry and work some more. That's not fun." Max jumped off the counter again. "I'm going to go have fun. You do whatever you like." He wandered towards the door, vanishing into the depths of the misty room.

Danny sighed and went back to potting. He'd been working for a while when Alyssa showed up, wearing Cole's jacket and clearly tired.

"Hey, Danny. Are you nearly done?"

"Nearly," he agreed, carefully adjusting one of the trays. "I just want to make sure these seeds are settled in right."

Alyssa leaned against the counter, watching him. "You should have some fun," she said abruptly.

"That's what..." Danny shook his head, looking away. "Never mind. This is important, Alyssa."

"I know." She reached up to squeeze his shoulder lightly. "Never give up, Danny."

"Don't say that."

"Why not? Max wouldn’t want us to avoid it just because he..."

"Alyssa..."

"Because he died," she said firmly over him. "Max would want us to keep fighting and playing and having fun and never, ever give up. You know that, Danny."

"I have to finish these."

She studied him for a moment. "Danny? Can I please have a hug?"

"What?"

"Please?"

He turned away from the bench, pulling off his gloves and laying them aside. "I'm dirty..."

"I don't care." Alyssa wrapped her arms around him, leaning her head against his chest. Danny slowly wrapped his arms around her, hanging on tightly.


	3. Music

Ethan found Kira in one of the rec rooms, strumming absently at her guitar.

The rec rooms were constantly evolving. At first they'd had different ones for each team, but for people like Rose that was very isolating. For a few hours they'd been colour coded, but some Rangers barely knew any other teams. Nowadays they'd mostly given up on systems and people used whatever one they wanted.

Someone – possibly Rocky, or Jason, Ethan wasn't very sure of the early teams – had also pointed out that isolating the Rangers from the civilians wasn't very healthy. The Rangers' perceived privileges already got them glares from some people; they needed to stay as close as possible to the civilians to counter that. Someone else had pointed out that the Rangers _needed_ time alone. Some of the civilians almost worshipped them; some were hostile, angry that they hadn't done more to protect the world; some just wanted something. Either way, the Rangers needed space away from them.

So nowadays there were shared rec rooms, and ranger rec rooms, and everyone just used whichever one was free. It made it hard to track anyone down, but sometimes that was the point.

This particular room was small, off the beaten track, and barely deserved the title of rec room; all it had were a few couches and a handful of old magazines. Kira was sitting on the back of one of the couches, strumming, eyes far away.

"Doesn't sound like your usual." Ethan slumped onto another couch, sighing.

"It's not one of mine." She kept going. "Rough day?"

"Ehh. We're having trouble with heating some of the lower floors. We may have to move hydroponics again."

"Where would you move it to?"

"The only rooms big enough are the gyms, but they don't have the pipe system for the..." he gestured vaguely. "Nutrients, or whatever."

"It's so reassuring how well you know the system that provides most of our food."

"I can fix it if I have to. Hydroponics is Justin's baby, him and Danny. What is that song?"

"My dad liked it. He used to play it at home."

"I don't think I know it. How does it go?"

Kira considered for a moment before shaking her head. "It's not good for here."

"Why not?"

"Too apropos."

"Too apropos? That's a new one."

She rolled her eyes, starting to sing softly. "These mist covered mountains are a home now for me. But my home is the lowlands, and always will be. Some day you'll return to your valleys and your farms. And you'll no longer burn to be brothers in arms."

Ethan sat forward slowly, listening intently. Kira wasn't looking at him now, eyes very distant. "Through these fields of destruction, baptism of fire. I've witnessed..." Her voice hitched. "...suffering, as the battles raged higher. And though they did hurt me so bad, in the fear and alarm, you did not desert me, my brothers in arms."

"There's so many different worlds," someone picked up from the door. Ethan spun to see Tanya leaning against the frame, watching them sympathetically. "So many different suns. We have just one world, though we live in different ones."

"Now the sun's gone to hell," Kira continued, "and the moon's rising high. Let me bid you farewell; ev'ry man has to die. But it's written in the starlight, ev'ry line on your palm...we're fools to make war on our brothers in arms."

Tanya came in, folding herself neatly onto the table. "I haven't heard that one in a while."

Kira nodded, still strumming. "It was one of my dad's favourites. I learned it very early on. It's not really my style, but I've been thinking of it lately."

Ethan touched her knee, smiling when she glanced down at him. "It's very pretty."

"It's a war protest song, Ethan, it's not supposed to be pretty."

"Oh? Guess that must just be you, then."

"Smooth," Tanya complemented him.

Ethan grinned, turning back to Kira. "Sing something happy. Something with a bit of pep."

Kira grinned, strumming a different tune. "Once in a lifetime..."

"Really?" Tanya interrupted. "High School Musical?"

"He wanted something happy with pep. I can't think of anything happier or peppier than High School Musical."

"I can. May I?" Kira handed over the guitar and Tanya strummed it a couple of times. "Been a while since I played guitar. Ok, I have to change the lyrics on this just a little, but it should work."

She hummed a phrase, shifted keys and started again. "As I came home on a Monday night, as drunk as drunk could be, I saw a horse outside the door where my old horse should be. So I called my love and I said to him, would you kindly tell to me? Who owns that horse outside the door where my old horse should be?"

Ethan joined in, fading a little on some of the words but very enthusiastic. " 'Ah, you're drunk, you drunk, you silly old fool, and still you cannot see! That's the lov-er-ly sow that me mother sent to me.' It's many a day I've traveled, a hundred miles or more! But a saddle on a sow, sure I never saw before."

"Where did you learn that?" Kira asked in surprise.

"Conner. His mother's Irish, and the last two verses are really rude."

"We're not doing those ones," Tanya agreed. "As I came home on a Tuesday night..."

They went through the five weekdays – the jacket that was a blanket with buttons on, the pipe that was a tin whistle with tobacco in, the boots that were geranium pots with laces, and the head of a baby boy with whiskers on – and finished with a loud chorus. Kira joined in, laughing.

"I haven't played that in a long time," Tanya said, handing the guitar back.

"You sounded pretty good," Ethan told her.

"What are the other two verses about?" Kira asked.

Ethan grinned. "I'm not telling. Maybe Tanya will tell you. Later. When I'm a long way away from here."

Kira rolled her eyes at him, turning to Tanya. "Were you looking for us? Hardly anyone comes down this way."

"Oh. Yeah, I was. Can you go out tomorrow night? Trini was supposed to, but..."

"Yeah, sure," Kira agreed. Trini didn't cancel unless it was important.

"Great. Find Carlos at some point, ok? It's his team."

"Sure."

Tanya nodded, gesturing to the guitar. "Thanks. I had fun."

"Sure. Another time, maybe."

"I'd like that." She smiled, leaving the room, and behind her the music started up again.


	4. Just Passing Through

Guard duty was either very, very tense, or very, very boring. Zhane often found himself half-wishing for a tense shift in the middle of a quiet one, but he knew quiet was better. Miles of concrete and steel seemed to confuse whatever scanners the Warriors were using, but they had foot patrols, even out here in the mountains.

Tommy kept changing the teams, too. It didn't bother Zhane much; Andros had been off planet during the invasion, and outside his team he had no real attachment to anyone else, he just worked with whoever he was assigned with.

Some were definitely easier than others, though. Personally, he had no real feelings either way about Camille, but she was always happier with Dom or Casey, the closest thing she had to teammates. She was at least easier than Eric, who seemed perpetually angry with everyone. Zhane wasn't even sure why she was here instead of out at the academy with Jarrod; everyone knew he was the major reason behind her turn, just like everyone knew Marah had turned for Dustin and Kapri had turned to follow her.

"What do you suppose that is?" Zhane asked idly, halfway through the shift.

Camille followed his gaze, frowning. Deep in a valley behind the Mountain, a light was flickering. "Reflection?"

"From where? There's no water down there. And it's very regular."

She watched for another moment. "Are you all right here for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure. Where are you going?"

"Check something," she murmured, vanishing back inside. Zhane shrugged, leaning against the wall to wait for her.

She reappeared a few minutes later with Dom in tow. Zhane wasn't really surprised; Theo was polite but cool to her, and no one woke Casey if they could help it. No one slept enough, but Casey would literally keep going until he dropped if he thought it was necessary. Without Lily and RJ, his teammates had trouble managing him.

"What am I looking for?" Dom asked, scrubbing sleep from his eyes.

"There." Zhane lined him up carefully, leaning over his shoulder to point. Dom followed his finger until he saw the light, frowning as he counted under his breath.

"It's an SOS."

"A what?"

"A signal, a cry for help. It's an old code but most people know it. Someone's down there, a human."

"You're sure this isn't a trick?" Zhane asked.

"The code's not used today. It's just one of those things everyone knows. It's not likely they learned it." Dom glanced automatically upwards; most people did when speaking of the invaders.

"So someone's really down there?" Zhane glanced back at the door, trying to remember the ridiculously complicated schedules. "Who's around right now?"

"I can grab Theo. And I think I saw...mmm, what's her name, the Air Force girl. Wild Force."

"Taylor," Camille supplied.

"Thank you," Dom said gratefully. "She makes me nervous."

"Shows you have sense," Zhane told him. "Go get them, and whoever else is hanging around."

"Yes, sir," Dom agreed, snapping off a salute and heading back inside.

"Sir?" Zhane said anyway, mock angry.

"You're ten years older than he is," Camille pointed out.

"I am not! I'm only four years older than him!"

"It's still going," she noted. "Is it a person doing that?"

"Who knows. Maybe it's a machine."

Dom reappeared with Theo, Taylor, and the Lightspeed cowboy. Zhane had to concentrate for a moment to remember his name, and it bothered him a little; a year ago it would have been effortless.

"I told them," Dom murmured. "But I don't know what – can we even get there from here?"

"I know how," Camille said. "Someone has to stay with Zhane."

"I will," Theo offered after a minute.

"Hey, why am I staying?" Zhane protested. "I saw it in the first place!"

Theo rolled his eyes. "Both of you go. I'll find – someone."

"I can stay," Dom offered, but it was half hearted and he didn't argue when Theo waved him away.

"This way," Camille said, turning to begin the climb down.

It took longer than Zhane liked, but he'd vetoed carrying torches and none of them saw in the dark as well as they once had. Camille led the way, considerately going slowly enough for them. Zhane himself brought up the rear, watching to make sure they were all keeping up.

She slowed as they entered the valley. "You should go that way," she murmured to Dom and Joel, pointing out a barely-there path. "It'll bring you around behind them. Wait for us before you confront them."

"Are we confronting them?" Dom asked. "We don't know they've done anything wrong."

Camille glared at him until he looked away. "We don't," he insisted, just loudly enough to be heard.

"Be careful," Zhane told them, heading off in the other direction with Taylor. Camille followed them, smirking at Dom as she passed him.

The light was visible from some distance away, still flickering in the odd pattern Dom had called SOS. Zhane used it as a bearing, veering off when they were almost at it to come at it from the side. His group crouched in silence on the edge of a clearing, waiting for their eyes to adjust; Camille was ready the fastest and started whispering descriptions softly.

"Four people. Three men and a younger boy. The boy's making the light flash. One of the men, the youngest one – teenage, maybe – looks hurt or sick. "

"And one of the other men sees you," one of the figures said calmly. The boy faltered and the light stopped flashing. "Come out, Rangers. We've traveled a long way to find you. We mean no harm."

Taylor touched Zhane's arm, holding him in place. "I know that voice," she murmured.

"Who is it?"

"I don't – I can't place it. But I think we should be really, really careful."

He nodded, pushing to his feet and stepping into the clearing. Taylor was on his heels; Camille lurked a little further back. There was no sign of Dom and Joel, but Zhane didn't look for them.

The boy turned the light he'd been using so they could see each other. Zhane glanced at the youngest man – definitely sick, and barely more than a boy – before focusing on the older two. One was holding a sword, though it was sheathed and grounded; the other simply stood, arms folded, and watched him.

"Zhane of the Rangers," he introduced himself. "Taylor of the Rangers and Camille of the Rangers." Camille didn't react to the non standard introduction, he was pleased to see; most of the civilians addressed any Ranger as Ranger, but Camille was only ever called by her name. "You are?"

"Passing through," the man with the sword said. "Escorting these two to your safety."

Zhane glanced at the two again. The boy was kneeling by the injured man's head, watching them carefully. "Who are they?"

"Civilians, and helpless while he's ill. Will you turn them away?"

"No."

"Zen Aku," Taylor said abruptly. The second men let his arms fall, watching her. "You were destroyed! Twice!"

"I was," he agreed. "Duke Orgs don't die so easily, Yellow Ranger."

"But you're human."

"I am as surprised as you, I assure you."

"You can't be human," Taylor insisted.

Camille cleared her throat; Taylor glanced at her, scowling. "Even so." 

Zen Aku studied her for a moment. "Merrick was with us, until two days ago. He turned aside to journey to Turtle Cove; he wanted to see what was left of it."

"Merrick's alive?" Taylor repeated in surprise. "But he should be here!"

"He resists your call. Not for much longer, I think. But he very much wanted to go home. He said that I should say – May the Power protect you."

"Taylor?" Zhane murmured. Every Ranger knew the trust password, but so did increasing numbers of outsiders; too many people heard Rangers greet each other with it during the first few days of attacks.

"Zen Aku was – one of our enemies, once."

"Old enmities mean little nowadays," Zen AKu pointed out. "And Merrick and I have traveled together for years, since shortly after he left Turtle Cove."

"You should tell your friends to come out," the first man said, sounding almost bored. "If the blond one breathes any louder, he'll bring down the Warriors on our heads."

"Hey!" Dom protested from somewhere on the other side of the clearing. 

Taylor rolled her eyes as the two sheepishly came out from behind their cover. "Nice job, guys."

"You know who we are," Zhane said thoughtfully.

"Everyone knows the Rangers."

"Taylor?"

Taylor considered them. "Zen Aku had honour. He wouldn't use a kid to do his dirty work. I don’t know about this other guy, but I think we can trust Zen Aku."

"Thank you for your ringing endorsement. Are you going to take them or not?"

"We don't turn people away." Zhane gestured to Dom, who went to kneel by the pair, flashing a quick grin at the kid and looking the man over.

"Injured and unconscious," he said after a moment. "We need to get him inside fast."

"Go on," Zhane said. Joel went to help Dom carefully lift the boy, waving the kid along with them.

"Are you coming?" Taylor asked Zen Aku.

"There are things to do out here. Things Rangers can't get done."

"Be careful. And send Merrick back to us."

"When he's ready, he'll come."

"Can we get you anything?" Zhane asked, glancing at the other man. "Supplies?"

"We can manage."

"All right. May the Power protect you."


	5. Broken

Theo was still on guard as they came back up to the entrance. "That was exciting," he noted.

"Where are they?" Zhane asked, stepping aside to let Taylor pass. Casey had turned up, he noted, but he didn't speak and Zhane didn't speak to him.

"Went down to the infirmary," Theo told him. "Adam's looking for you, he needs a report."

"He's supposed to be asleep right now."

"Adam's not the type to sit something like this out."

"No, but he needs to learn. Do you know where he is?"

"Down trying to get something coherent out of Joel, I think."

"Thanks. Can you..."

Theo waved him off. "Go ahead."

"I'll stay with him," Camille said. Zhane nodded, heading for the infirmary.

Both Ryan and Trent were helping, Trent with the child, Ryan at Dana's side working over the boy. Zhane caught a glimpse of the wound on his side and looked away, swallowing hard. That was neither fresh nor clean; someone had wanted the boy to hurt.

He paused behind Trent, smiling at the kid. "Trent?"

"Hey." Trent grinned at the boy before turning fully to look at him. "He's all right. Malnourished and dehydrated and bruised and scared out of his wits, but all right. We're just hanging around to keep an eye on his friend; he doesn't like being separated from him."

"Is he talking? He tell you anything?"

"Not yet."

"Right." Zhane clapped him absently on the shoulder, turning away. "Adam!"

He gave his report; Adam was very interested in Zen Aku, and only slightly less interested in the other man. "How do you think they found us?"

"They had a Ranger with them up to a couple of days ago; Taylor recognised the name."

"Merrick?" he suggested.

"Yeah, that's him. They said he went off to Turtle Cove, but he could easily have told them how to get here."

Adam nodded. "You're satisfied they didn't mean any harm?"

"Unless one of the kids is a weapon in disguise, I think we're safe. Taylor was fairly sure Zen Aku wouldn't do that. And where's the benefit, anyway? We don't turn people away, they could have gotten in themselves if they wanted to."

"Mmm. Do you know where Taylor is?"

"With her team, I guess, telling them Merrick's alive."

"Ok. In future, try and tell someone before you go off chasing SOS lights."

"We told Theo, and Taylor, and Dom," Zhane pointed out mildly. He wasn't going to accept Adam's bad temper just because he'd been woken up. This was why they had shifts and rotations, so that no one wore themselves out.

Adam grimaced at him before heading off; gone to find Taylor and grill her about Zen Aku, Zhane guessed. He glanced around, finding a bit of wall to lean against to watch while Dana and Ryan worked.

Eventually, she stepped away, leaving Ryan setting up an IV. Looking around, she crossed to stand beside Zhane. "We have to get his fever down," she told him. "If we can do that, I think he'll be ok. We're giving him fluids and antibiotics now."

"Do you know what happened?"

She shrugged, wiping her hands on a towel. "It looks like a stab wound. He'd been trying to take care of it; it's been cleaned and there was a bandage, sort of. It's too wide to stitch, though, and there's limits to how well you can take care of something like that in the field."

"Dana?" Trent said. "I'm going to take the kid to get something to eat and some better clothes. Can he just see him for a second first?"

"Of course," Dana agreed, pasting a smile on and turning to the boy. "Don't touch him, ok? We've got him on some monitoring equipment and it mustn't be disturbed." He nodded quickly, slipping past Trent to stand beside the boy.

"He's all right?" Zhane murmured to Trent.

"No real injuries. He'll be ok. I'm going to find Ziggy or Tony; if anyone can get him talking, they can."

"Even if it's just to tell them to shut up," Zhane agreed. "Dana, do you have a report? I'm going up to see Tommy, I'll pass it on."

"Yeah, give me a second." Dana took the clipboard Trent was holding and turned away.

"Good luck with Dr O," Trent told him, turning to the boy. "Come on, let's go. You can come back later, ok? Just let Ranger Dana do her work for now." He followed him obediently, glancing back once at the bed.

"Here." Dana handed Zhane a neatly written sheet. "Short form, kid's fine, boy'll be fine if we can break his fever."

Zhane nodded, skimming the report. "One's about twelve, one's about eighteen, malnourished, dehydrated, signs of living rough. Got it. Thanks, Dana."

"No problem. I'll be here most of today; I don't want to leave him alone right now."

"Okay. Thanks."

He took one last look at the broken form on the bed before turning away and heading for the Dispatch Centre. Maybe someone was looking for these kids.


	6. Strangers

"Miss Rose?"

"I'm busy, Spencer!" she called down. She didn't expect it to actually put him off, but he was unlikely to pursue her into the ducting. He might stand at the entrance and shout at her, but he wouldn't come in after her.

"Yes, as you have been for almost ten hours now. If you'd come out of there for but five minutes, you could eat this food I risked life and limb to procure, and then we could both get on with other things."

Rose wriggled around so she could look at him through the opening. "You didn't risk life and limb."

"I happened to enter the dining hall at family dinner time."

"Oh." The dining halls served in shifts, and anyone with small children were encouraged to come at certain times so that workers could eat in relative peace at other times. It tended to be very noisy and very chaotic during family meal times. Rose considered her work, made two quick adjustments and capped the wires. "I'm coming out."

"Thank goodness for small mercies."

When she scrambled out he offered her a towel and a handful of wet wipes, and when she'd finished using those there was fresh salad and a cookie. "Life and limb," Spencer told her again, and Rose smiled and snapped it in half to share.

"How much longer do you expect to be?" Spencer asked when they'd finished eating, passing her a flask of sweet tea.

"I'm not sure. The UV bulbs on certain sections are burning out too fast, and I'm trying to figure out why. If we can't get those bulbs to work, some of the living areas are going to be uninhabitable, and if we lose the UV in the growing areas..."

"We'll be back to cans and MREs," Spencer agreed. "Heaven forbid."

"Spencer, you served in the Navy. You must have eaten MRES."

"And I hated them then just as much as I do now," he assured her. "Can I be of assistance?"

"No, in the ducts it's just as easy to work alone. Thanks." She helped him clear up the remains of their impromptu meal.

"Do remember, Miss Rose, you need sleep as well as food to function. Please don't make me come down here to root you out again."

"I'll remember," she agreed with a smile. She turned away, hesitated, and looked back. "Spencer?"

"Yes, Miss Rose."

"I thought of something you can do to help."

 

Spencer was careful to look like he knew what he was doing as he walked. In theory, given that he was a recognised ally, he had free reign in the Ranger commons, including the rooms they were using as Command. In practise, he'd never set foot inside, preferring to spend his time ordering the kitchen volunteers around and taking care of the Rangers who worked out in the public areas. As a group, the Rangers worked too hard, driven by grief and guilt, and none of the civilians could or would stop them. Spencer and some of the other allies did what they could, but it was never enough.

Rose's hasty descriptions were entirely accurate, and Spencer found himself standing outside Tommy's office. The door was open, and he eyed the teetering piles of paper on his desk in despair.

Adam came past, noticed him, and paused. "Something I can help you with, Mr Spencer?"

"It's just Spencer, as you very well know." He looked back at the office. "I was speaking with Miss Rose, and she expressed some concern about Ranger Tommy's working habits."

"You don't have to call him Ranger Tommy." Spencer shrugged, and Adam followed his gaze into the office. "Tommy doesn't like being handled."

"That will be a completely new experience, I assure you."

"I remember." Adam considered for a minute. "Tommy's - he's intense, Spencer. I know Mr Hartford was bad, and Mack was worse. But Tommy's really - he needs handling, he needs care, and he won't accept any of it."

"I did manage a troop of Her Majesty's naval officers," Spencer reminded him. 

Adam grinned. "I hate to lose you out of the kitchens, but...Tommy's terrible at paperwork. He puts it down wherever he's standing and doesn't remember it until we yell at him. Someone who could sort through the reports, pick out the important stuff..."

"That, I can handle," Spencer told him. "I can also make sure he eats and at least leaves here every so often."

"If you can manage that much, it'll be more than the rest of us put together." Adam glanced around the room. "Ashley!"

"Yeah." Ashley glanced up from one of the desks, coming to join them.

"I just appointed Spencer as Tommy's PA. Get him set up, make sure everyone knows to go to him instead of chasing Tommy around." Turning to Spencer, he added, "if you have suggestions, we welcome them. We're making things up as we go, here."

Spencer nodded. "Does Ranger Tommy know who I am? I'd hate for him to turn up and find a stranger going through his office."

"He knows who you are," Ashley told him. "I think we all know who you are. Let me sort out a desk for you and that kind of thing."

"I'm going to leave you with Ashley," Adam said. "If you need help with anything, yell for Wes; he fills in for everyone around here."

"Wesley Collins was training to run Bio Labs, and you have him _temping_?"

Adam shrugged. "It's what he's happy doing, he's good at it, and we don't need him worse anywhere else. Ash, you got this?" Ashley nodded and he turned to hurry away.

"There goes another man who works too hard," Spencer commented.

"Find me someone who doesn't. You stay here a minute and I'll get you sorted out."


	7. Shadow

"...so the heroes called for their magical armour, in a very long winded way, each of them calling individually instead of all at once so nothing could attack them in between...

Trini grinned, watching. "I don't think I've ever heard this one."

"He's got his own way of doing it," Mia agreed, "but the kids seem to like it."

On the other side of the room Ziggy was busily making shadow puppets to go along with his story. Trini was fairly sure he was making it up as he went along.

"...then the hero's best friend, who we all remember had once been a conman but was now reformed, suggested a plan, and they all started to fight about the best thing to do..."

"Definitely haven't heard this one before."

"It's an education," Mia agreed. "But it gets the kids' minds off what's going on, so..."

"...and so the day was saved, thanks to the Mystic Knights, and they all went back to the castle and had lunch. And I think it's about time we had lunch, isn't it? Let's all just tidy up our books before we go, all right?"

A chorus of 'aw's rose from the group of children, and someone asked "Can't we have one more, Mr Ziggy?"

He glanced over at Mia and Trini, grinning. "Mr Ziggy, I love that – no, we have to go to lunch, and after lunch it's gym class. You don't want to be late, right? Maybe later on. Let's go, come on, books on shelves."

More groans, but the kids got up and started to tidy away their books. Ziggy picked his way through them to join Mia and Trini near the door. "Who's taking gym today?"

"I was going to, but I have somewhere to be," Trini said apologetically. "Can you handle it?"

"The little kids, yeah, but I can't do the older ones."

"I'll manage the older ones," Mia told him. "And I'll ask Tony to come give you a hand."

"Is that the kid who came in last night?" Trini asked, tilting her head. Mia followed her gaze; the boy was standing quietly by the bookshelf, scanning the spines.

"He shouldn't really be in here, he's too old, but the older kids are in the middle of a project with Billy right now. We'll move him up in a day or two."

"Has he said anything?"

"Not a word," Mia said sadly. 

"Tony's calling him Nino for now," Ziggy offered. "We're using that, he's answering to it. Well, sort of answering."

"Where did you hear that story, Ziggy?” Trini asked.

“Friend of mine from Scotland. It’s actually Irish, but I guess he heard it growing up or something.”

"Everyone ready?" Mia asked abruptly, stepping away from them. "Let's go have lunch, ok? Remember, quiet while we pass the other classroom, they're doing something very delicate. Fingers on lips. Nino, can you do me a favour? Can you walk at the back and make sure everyone's keeping up?" Nino nodded, stepping out of the line and waiting for them to pass.

"See you later," Ziggy told Trini, joining the line and tiptoeing along exaggeratedly. The kids around him giggled softly, mimicking him.

"Me and my shadow," Trini muttered, amused. Leaving the room behind them, she closed the door and headed off.


	8. Agony

Pain dragged him awake. He tried to curl up against it, but someone was holding his shoulders, pinning him down.

Zen Aku or Merrick would have spoken. Deker never touched him. Cody was too small to restrain him. He struggled, trying to get away, but his side was burning and he had to stop, panting harshly.

"Take it easy," a woman said suddenly. He jumped – he hadn't sensed her coming – and whimpered as his side tore again. "We're not trying to hurt you, ok? Calm down, you're destroying all my good work."

"Hurts," he managed, trying to curl up again.

"I know. I need you awake for a minute, but then I'll give you something for it. Relax, I'm going to look at your side, ok?" Gentle fingers touched his side and he hissed, fighting back the scream.

"Where am..." He coughed, groaning.

"You're in the Rangers' New Command Centre, the Mountain. Listen to me, are you allergic to anything?"

"Aller – spider bites."

"Anaphylaxis? Ok. Any medication?"

"I'm – no..."

"You don't know?"

"Don't know. Please..."

"Ok. Hold still, this'll sting for a minute, ok?"

A small hand slid into his. He recognised the touch of it and hung on tightly. The sting on his arm was quickly followed by a wave of numbness and he slid gratefully back into sleep.

The next time he woke the pain was distant and muted. Someone was talking softly nearby; he shifted, coughing, and the voices trailed off.

"Hey there," the same woman said softly. "How are you feeling?"

"Not sure," he said honestly. "Where...Rangers?"

"NCC," she agreed. "What's the last thing you remember?"

He struggled for a moment before shaking his head. "I can't..."

"That's all right. Maybe later. Here." She offered him a glass with a straw. "Slowly, ok? You've been out for a day or so." He sipped obediently, grateful when it eased his throat. "Better? Listen, we don't know your name yet."

"My name?" he repeated.

"Zen Aku and another man left you here, but they didn't tell us your name."

"Jay." He looked up suddenly. "Just me?"

"No, he's here," the woman said quickly. "But he's not talking. Do you know..."

"He doesn't. Or isn't, or can't, I don't know. I'm sorry, you're...Dana Mitchell, right? Lightspeed Rescue?"

"That's me," Dana agreed. "I'm the doctor around here."

"Will I live?"

"You'll live. You're going to be sore for a while, but – hey," she interrupted herself, turning as the door opened.

Jay followed her gaze to see a man around his own age with...he grinned in relief. "Hey, there you are."

The kid smiled, trotting across to his bed. "Careful," Dana warned him. "He's just woken up and he's still very sore, ok?" He nodded quickly, leaning against the bed and smiling at Jay.

"Jay," Dana continued, "this is Tony, he's one of the people who's been looking after him."

"Thank you," Jay said quietly.

"Ah, Nino's no trouble, are you?" Tony grinned at them.

"Nino?" Jay repeated in confusion. Where on earth had they gotten that from?

"Well, we tried Niñito, but it's a bit of a mouthful for such a little boy..." He glared at Tony, who laughed. "So Nino it is."

"Jay, Zen Aku said there was another man with you, but he left," Dana said.

"Merrick," Jay agreed. "He's the one who knew where we were going, but he left a cou – three or four days ago? He wanted to go – somewhere, I'm sorry, I wasn't following very well by then. They were going to meet back up with him after they dropped us off. We were only slowing them down, making it dangerous."

"That's all right," Dana said quickly. "What about the other man who was with you?"

"Deker. He doesn't talk much. Best swordsman I've ever seen, though."

Tony took a step forward. "Nino, we should go let Jay get some rest, hmm? I'll bring you back later on. Let's go."

Nino sighed, so obviously put-upon that Jay smiled. "Go on. I'll be here later, ok?" He nodded reluctantly, following Tony out of the room.

"Sweet kid," Dana murmured. "He's not..."

"Not related, no. We found each other early on, during the First Attack. His family used to know mine, a long time ago." Jay shifted; the pain was starting to come back.

Dana noted the movement. "I'll give you something for that. You need more rest, but you'll be all right."

"Thank you," he murmured.

"That's what we do."

Dana watched him drift back into sleep, sighing softly. Ryan appeared from the back of the room, pacing quietly up to join her. "All right?" he asked softly.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Come eat."

"Yeah. I'm coming."


	9. School

"Careful! Careful on the floor, don't touch it! That's it, up on the wall, well done!"

"I'm really not sure about this game."

Ziggy snorted, eyes on the kids. "Agility, forward thinking, creativity..."

"And broken limbs if they miss."

"No one's going to miss!"

Tony smiled, turning to the line of kids behind him. "Who's next? Nino, you haven't gone yet. You know how it works?"

"Stay off the floor," Ziggy said. "It's not that complicated. Off you go, Nino."

Tony watched as he climbed onto a chair, considered for a moment, and jumped for the bars on the side wall. "You checked all the distances and everything, right?"

"Hey, I skipped lunch to set this up."

"You're taller than they are."

"It's fine, I brought a kid with me to check."

Tony glanced across the room as one of the boys – Matthew, he thought – made a leap onto the trampoline, only just making it; one leg slipped off the side and he had to throw himself forward, bouncing wildly for a moment. "It's not exactly exercise."

"What? It's completely exercise." Ziggy turned to the small group of children who'd already made it all the way around the room. "You got exercise, right?"

"Yes, Mr Ziggy," they chorused.

He turned back to Tony, deflating slightly at the look on his face. "Fine, we'll do some boring regular exercise as well when we're done." One of the kids groaned and he grinned in triumph.

Across the room Nino had backed himself into a corner. Considering for a moment, he pulled off his jacket, tossed it to the floor, and used it as a stepping stone to get himself to the vault horse.

"Oooh," Ziggy murmured. "Technically cheating, but I'm so tempted to let him away with it for creativity."

Tony grinned, shaking his head. "Nino, out!"

He shrugged good naturedly, rescuing his jacket and heading for the sidelines. Tony started the next girl going around, grinning as Matthew finished the course and yelled in triumph, throwing up his arms. His friends swarmed around him to congratulate him.

"See?" Ziggy murmured. "Creativity, agility, thinking ahead, and a sense of accomplishment when they're done."

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in." Raising his voice, he added, "Anyone who's finished, over here please! We're going to do some training. Do you remember your katas from last time? Nino, you just do your best to follow along, ok?"

Ziggy waved him off, turning back to the course and watching the kids tackle it. Proper gym classes had been his idea; Tommy Oliver, or someone else in his group, suggested calisthenics and katas. Ziggy had argued that even now, kids needed to be kids, and Mia and Trini had backed him up. So now half the kids' gym sessions were chasing games or basketball or these sessions he made up on the spot, while the rest were katas and proper exercises. Since the kids weren't usually allowed outside, it served to help them burn off some energy without getting in trouble. He was idly planning a soccer league, but he wasn't sure the kids would care.

The last boy made it through the course and Ziggy high fived him enthusiastically before sending him on to Tony's group. He busied himself clearing some of the equipment away and Tony gratefully spread the kids out a little more.

Tony drew the kata to a close, nodding. "Very good, guys. You're all doing really well. Now, everyone once around the room, top speed, and then we'll cool down, ok? Markssetgo!" The kids jolted into action and he went to join Ziggy, tidying away the equipment and mats.

"Come on, say it," Ziggy coaxed him.

Tony rolled his eyes. "It wasn't a terrible idea, they enjoyed it, and no one got hurt," he admitted.

"Thank you." Ziggy sketched a bow, laughing. Some of the kids, done with the run, came to help tidy up and he gladly set them to work.

"What is that?"

"What's what?"

Tony gestured to Ziggy's arm. "That."

"Oh..." Ziggy pulled his sleeve down. "It's an allergy. Ran out of antihistamines a while back."

"Ziggy..."

"It just makes me itchy. It's nothing. Go do the cool down before they start cramping."

Tony caught his arm, pulling his sleeve up to reveal the red marks and welts. "This isn't nothing..."

"It's an itch. It's nothing." He rolled his eyes at Tony's look. "Dr Mitchell knows about it, I go see her when it's bad. Feel better?"

"A bit," Tony admitted.

"It's just an itch, ok? I could be asthmatic or, y'know, have diabetes or something, then I'd really be in trouble. I just itch sometimes."

"Well, go put water on it or something. I'll finish up here."

Ziggy gave in, slipping out of the room, and Tony turned to the kids. "Right! Let's just do a few stretches before we finish up, ok? Everyone stand up tall!"


	10. Keeping Secrets

"May I ask you something, Dr Oliver?"

Tommy was fairly sure, from Spencer's tone, that this wasn't the first time he'd asked that. He was doing that more and more often lately, zoning out while he worried about one aspect of their community or another. No matter how hard he and the others worked, there were always more problems, always more details to be considered and debated and decided on.

He caught himself before his thoughts wandered too far, nodding. "Sure. You can also call me Tommy."

"Yes, we'll see." Spencer closed the office door, taking a few steps in.

"Should I be worried?" Tommy asked lightly.

"Perhaps." Spencer linked his fingers together in front of himself, studying them. "You're aware, Dr Oliver, that I helped Mr Hartford with his designs and projects and so on."

"He couldn't have done it without you. He often said so."

"He was a kind man," Spencer murmured, gaze going distant for a moment before refocusing. "So you understand that I have a certain amount of knowledge of construction and design and so forth."

"I do know. Spencer, why don't you just tell me whatever it is you're trying not to tell me?"

"I've been familiarising myself with this compound and its systems and composition."

"And?"

"And there are discrepancies. Common knowledge says that your mentor, Zordon, created this compound and all that is in it. The Rangers seem to share this belief."

"This is Zordon's Power Chamber," Tommy agreed, working very hard on not giving anything away with his expressions.

"And yet things simply don't add up. For instance, the solar panels outside. I know something about solar generators, and what you have here is far beyond anything Earth can offer."

"Zordon was not from Earth," Tommy reminded him. "He had many alien allies."

"Who could produce generators exactly tuned to Earth's sun?"

Tommy shrugged, and Spencer continued, "The hydroponics consistently produce well above their projected outputs; they are far superior to any system on the public market. There's the emergency food and MREs."

"Yes?"

"I was in the Navy, Dr Oliver. I know how to read an MRE packet. They are recently produced, within the last year. Your Zordon has been dead some fifteen years, as I understand it."

Tommy grimaced, drawing a hand over his face. "MRE packets? Really? That's what's catching me out?"

"That and several other things I have noticed. Your people are brilliant, but scavenged materials simply couldn't build what we have here. Not half of it."

"Do you think many other people have noticed?"

"I think they have _not_ noticed. They choose to ignore what they see." Spencer leaned forward, bracing himself on the desk. "Dr Oliver, you must tell me. Because right now, it looks to me as though you knew this was coming."

"No!" Tommy protested, half starting to his feet. "Of course not, how can you..."

"My apologies," Spencer murmured, apparently satisfied with his response. "Then please, explain it to me."

Tommy eased back into his chair, leaning forward. "The Rangers have had several very wealthy benefactors," he said carefully. "Starting with Wes Collins' father, and going right the way up to Andrew Hartford. You know that I contact each team when their fight's over so I can update the records; every time, the mentor has asked me how they can help the next team. That's not even mentioning the Rangers who are donating; Tanya and Cassie, TJ, many others. Cam helped me hide the tunnels, tricks of the eye and misdirection. Nick laid protective spells over the whole place, though I guess that's gone now."

"You've been preparing this place."

"Yeah," Tommy agreed. "I've always been afraid something like this would happen. Most of the enemies the Rangers have faced wanted the powers. That meant they had to take us down in Ranger form, and it limited their attacks. The Warriors don't want the Power, they just want us gone." He gestured around. "The tunnels, the rooms, the basics of the hydro and arboretum systems, that was all Zordon, but the rooms were all empty; it was literally just the structure. Alex Collins furnished three levels, and Anton Mercer did another two and the solar systems. Lightspeed gave us a lot of emergency supplies, not just the food but equipment and medical supplies. And the hydroponics, they're based on emergency systems built into the base in case they needed to hole up. Pretty much every team was able to help me out one way or another. And I've kept everything stocked up. I hoped we'd never have to use it, and at the worst I never imagined anything like this. Just that a team might have to hide, and they'd need allies and their families with them, someplace they'd be really safe."

"Did they know what they were doing?"

"Cam and Nick had an idea. The others didn't. They just gave me funds. Hayley might have figured something out; I spent a lot of time here, and she was smart enough to put two and three together."

"And why lay it at Zordon's door?" Spencer asked quietly. "Surely he would not begrudge you credit that is rightfully yours."

Tommy shook his head. "Zordon didn't make mistakes; Zordon always had a plan. Zordon always knew what was best. If this place, these systems, are his plan, then it works. We'll find a way out. If it's all just Tommy scrambling around to try and save something, anything, making it up as we go, then..."

"I see," Spencer murmured when he trailed off. "You're incorrect, you know."

"What?"

"That they wouldn't trust your plan. Do you think they don't know?"

"I think they're trying not to. The ones who know me best, Jason and Adam and Rocky, Trini, they also knew Zordon. Loved him, trusted him. They want to think he's still protecting them, even now. And the younger ones, they didn't know Zordon but they look up to us, and if we believe in his plan so do they. And it has to be like that, Spencer."

"Do you think we can win?"

"Rangers always win," Tommy told him. "And we are still Rangers. Once a Ranger..."

"Always a Ranger. Yes, I remember." He considered for a moment before straightening. "Well. I have some files to bury. And you, go and eat something. It's late."

"Yeah." Tommy had learned early not to argue with Spencer; he just bulldozed over you anyway. "I will. Spencer, thank you."

"Hmm. Eat something, we'll call it even."


	11. You Only Hurt the ones you Love

Kira hadn't been on a foraging trip for a while, not since shortly after they'd reached the NCC. She didn't mind going, but it was strange to be picking her way through the streets. They were heading for the warehouse district, where a supermarket supply warehouse was still only half picked over. The only major group in the area was in the Mountain, but they saw occasional evidence of other people, so they tried to only take what they really needed. The Mountain produced most of what they needed, after all.

Trent was on this mission as well and they chatted quietly as they walked. Despite living within fifty yards of each other, they didn't have much time together any more. Trent spent a lot of time in the medbay, learning everything Dana could teach him; he'd been unable to help Conner during the First Attack and was determined that would never happen again.

Jason and Dustin were ahead of them, Jason pulling the cart and Dustin watching his path; Carlos brought up the rear. The foraging groups were usually larger; it was one of the things the civilians did, but tonight they were looking for something particular and Carlos wanted to keep the group small.

Trent slipped back to talk to Carlos and Kira kept going, picking her way through the piles of rubble. The dark made it harder; she'd never quite realised just how dark real darkness was. With no streetlights or houselights, there was almost nothing to light their way. Even the moon was mostly covered by clouds.

She stepped on a pile of rubble that shifted suddenly; flailing, she caught her balance, holding still as the pile settled again. "You ok?" Carlos called softly from behind her.

"Yeah, I'm just..." she shifted her weight, grimacing. "I'm stuck!"

"Are you hurt?" Trent asked.

"No..." She dug her torch out of her pocket, flicking it on and pointing it at her feet.

"Turn that off!" Carlos ordered.

"I can't see where..."

"Off, now!"

"Incoming!" That was Dustin, somewhere ahead of them; Kira shone the torch that way instinctively and saw them both hurrying back, leaving the cart somewhere.

"Kira, put it out!"

Kira looked back towards him, still twisting her foot. "I need..."

A Warrior landed ten feet in front of her.

Kira froze, half remembered fragments of one of Dr O's briefings flitting through her mind. ' _They're designed to scare us.' '...leave no bodies.' 'No communication.' 'No mercy.'_

"Kira." Carlos was close, and very calm. "Can you move?"

"I think so."

"Turn off your torch. Put it down. Then walk here to me. Slowly. Turn it off now." Kira obeyed numbly. "Now put it down."

"Kira, move!" Trent yelled suddenly.

The noise seemed to startle the Warrior into movement. One arm came up, one of the rare guns aimed squarely at her.

Someone smashed into her and they crashed down the side of the pile as the gun exploded overhead. Kira's ankle wrenched as her weight pulled it free from the pile.

Whoever had hit her slid off with a soft, pained sound. Kira tried to follow, to see who it was, but Carlos was abruptly there, pulling her upright and holding her there when her ankle gave way. "Get her back," he ordered someone behind her, and Kira found herself swept off her feet and held against someone's chest as he jogged away.

Kira tried to talk to him – she thought it was Jason; Dustin was lankier and it definitely wasn't Trent – but he wasn't listening to her. When they reached the base of the mountain he put her back on her feet, draped one of her arms around his shoulders and hustled her up, ignoring the sentries. He didn't stop until they burst into the medbay, startling Ryan.

"We were attacked," Jason said, ducking out from under Kira's arm so quickly she wobbled and would have gone down if Ryan hadn't steadied her. "I have to go find out what happened."

"Jason?" Kira said softly. "Who saved me?"

He hesitated for a long moment before saying, "Dustin. Dustin saved you."

He was gone before she could say anything else. Ryan urged her to a bed, carefully unlacing her boot to get at her ankle. Ethan arrived a few minutes later, sleep mused and even less in the know than she was, but he sat with her while Ryan strapped her ankle, checked her impersonally for other injuries, found a cup of hot sweet tea and left them alone, sitting in a corner and busying himself with files. 

Dr O didn't appear, and the longer he didn't appear the worse Kira felt. Something had to be really wrong. He'd never leave them here otherwise.

Eventually Trent arrived, shaky and wearing different clothes. "Kira," he said, as though surprised she was there. "How are you?" He took the clipboard from the end of her bed, studying it avidly.

"Trent, what happened?" she demanded.

"Hmm? I think Dr O's on his way down. How's your ankle?"

"Trent," she said softly. Trent's hands shook and the clipboard rattled against her bed frame.

"Kira."

They all turned to see Tori leaning against the doorframe. Ethan abandoned Kira with an apologetic look to help the Water Ninja in; she was deathly pale and almost dragged Ethan down with her before he adjusted.

He helped her across to the bed, where Tori caught at Kira's hand. "Are you hurt?"

"Am I – Tori, what's happened to Dustin?"

She flinched, looking at Trent, who dropped his gaze. "She doesn't know yet," he informed the clipboard in his hands.

"Know what? What don't I know?" Kira demanded, voice raising. "He can't be – he was still there! He didn't get hit! What don't I know?"

"Calm," Ryan ordered abruptly. Kira jumped, looking up to find him watching her. "Be calm," he said again.

"Sorry," she murmured, deliberately taking a few deeper breaths. Ryan watched, eyes narrowed, until she looked calmer before going back to his seat. "What don't I know?" she asked more calmly.

Tori glanced at Trent, who shook his head. Scowling, she looked back at Kira. "Dustin pushed you out of the way," she said slowly. "But he wasn't fast enough, he didn't duck enough..." Her voice caught.

"No," Kira whispered. "But he...Tori, I'm sorry!"

"It's not your fault. Trust me. Dustin always did leap before he looked. Are you all right?"

"She's twisted her ankle," Trent offered, waving the clipboard as evidence.

"And I think she's kind of in shock," Ethan agreed.

"Shut up, I am not," Kira muttered. "Tori..."

Tori leaned forward, catching her face in both hands. "Not your fault," she said firmly. "Say it."

"N – not my fault."

"Good. Keep saying it."

"Not my fault," she repeated softly. "Not my fault."

Maybe if she said it enough she'd believe it.


	12. Healing

People came and went for the next while. Most of them stopped to awkwardly ask how Kira was; she stopped answering after a while, curling into the tightest ball she could, and Ethan loudly repeated his 'in shock' theory to everyone. After a while they stopped coming, and a bit after that Ethan left, and a little while after that Kira realised that Trent was gone too.

Someone had pulled the curtain most of the way around her bed, and she lay for a long time watching the strip of light under it. People were still moving back and forth every so often, and occasionally there was talking, but it was all just noise.

Dana came by and made her eat lunch. It all tasted like cardboard, but Kira forced down as much as she could and then Dana went away again. Kira sat, watching the curtain at the end of her bed this time.

"Nino!"

Rousing slightly, she realised there was a young boy standing in the opening of the curtain. Tony was a little further back, trying to ease the boy away without disturbing her.

"Sorry, Ranger Kira," he murmured when he realised she was awake. "We didn't mean..."

"It's all right." Her voice caught and she cleared her throat, coughing slightly. "Is something wrong?"

The boy took a couple of steps closer. Kira recognised him, vaguely; he'd come in recently, and in fact the man he'd come with was still in a bed further along the ward. "What is it?" she asked.

The boy gestured her to lean closer. Kira obliged, and he wiped out something from behind his back and plopped it on Kira's head.

"Thank you," she said uncertainly, one hand going up. It was a circlet of grass or stalks; she didn't want to take it off while the boy was watching, so she looked imploringly at Tony.

"It's a crown," he explained. "They were helping down in hydroponics and he was the best, so he got a crown."

"Rosemary," the man spoke up suddenly from his own bed. "For remembrance. It's a very soothing, relaxing smell. You should keep it near you for a while." Eyes darkening, he added, "Until it fades."

He clearly wasn't talking about the smell. Kira dredged up a smile for the boy. "Thank you."

"Nino," Tony murmured.

"Nino," Kira added smoothly. "It's very kind of you."

"Come on," Tony said. "Back to fleecing Jay at cards. Best poker face I've seen in a long time," he added to Kira. "Do you want to play?"

"Maybe later."

"Sure." He twitched the curtain closed again; he and the other man – Jay – started talking quietly, mostly bantering over their hands or teasing each other when Nino beat one of them.

Safe behind the curtains, Kira tugged off the circlet and studied it. It wasn't a work of art by any means, but it was pretty and just touching it released the smell – and it was relaxing. Lying down, she put it carefully on the pillow next to her head and drifted into sleep to the sounds of laughter from beyond the curtain.


	13. Against all Odds

Jay woke to find Nino curled against him.

He wasn't really supposed to be there; he had a room, somewhere, he'd been assured, with other kids his own age and a dorm parent to keep an eye on him. But he'd had trouble sleeping since they'd left home, and contact seemed to help; and however nice everyone was here, he didn't know any of them.

"Huh. My patients are multiplying." Trent smiled faintly, reaching for his free wrist.

"Sorry," Jay murmured.

"Is he leaning anywhere painful?"

"No."

"Then I think we can let it slide. He's not exactly bothering anyone. Jay, I don't see anything in your notes here about this?" He turned Jay's wrist lightly.

"About..."

"This."

Jay glanced at the scar running around his wrist. "Rope burn," he said shortly. Trent reached across him for his other wrist and Jay let him take it, eyes locked on his feet. Nino shifted but didn't wake.

"Looks nasty," Trent murmured, comparing the scars.

"They don't hurt. Can't wear a watch, but who needs to know the time anyway." He tugged lightly until Trent let go. "It's nothing."

"Jay..."

"It's nothing." Jay glanced at the closed cubicle on the other side of the ward. "How's..."

"Kira?" Trent shrugged, writing something on the clipboard. "Still sleeping. She'll be ok; she's tough."

"I'm glad." Jay considered for a moment before saying "Ranger Trent, is Dr Mitchell around?"

"Not yet. Problem?"

"No." He glanced at Nino, smiling faintly. "His name is Cody."

Trent hesitated, watching him. "You do know him."

"I should have said, but I wasn't..." 

He gestured vaguely and Trent nodded. "No, of course you weren't. Jay, do you know why he's not talking?"

"We were with a bigger group, and we got attacked. Cody wasn't _hurt_ , but some of the group were killed, some of them were run off..."

"That'll do it," Trent agreed. "But no injuries?"

"He probably inhaled some smoke, but no. No injuries."

"That's something, at least. He'll probably start talking again once he feels safe."

"Nino!"

They both looked up; Trent hung the clipboard back on the bed, smiling at the woman. "Been looking for him?"

"I'm sorry, is he in the way? He snuck out of the dorm last night."

"He's not in the way." Trent nodded, heading back to the desk across the room to shuffle some paperwork.

Jay nudged him gently. "Hey, Cody. Wake up."

"Cody?" the woman repeated. "How does..."

"I've known Cody a while," Jay told her. "I only realised no one knew his name this morning."

Cody slid off the bed, scrubbing at one eye, and glanced around. "Morning," Jay said quietly. "Feeling ok?" He nodded, leaning against the bed.

"Cody." Tony joined them, several books held loosely under his arm. "There you are."

"You're going to have to stop sneaking out," Jay told him, mock-seriously. "Turning everything upside down, getting everyone worried..."

"Should've guessed he'd be down here, though," Tony pointed out. "Good thinking, Mia."

"It was really just a guess."

"Mia?" Jay caught at her wrist; he missed, but she paused anyway. "Mia Watanabe?"

"Yes?" she asked warily.

He looked down at his hand and she followed his gaze, watching as he sketched a shape against the sheets. "Who are you?" she demanded. Across the room, Trent looked up, attention caught by her tone. "How do you know that symbol?"

"I'm Jayden. Jayden Shiba." Someone dropped something, but he ignored it, sketching a second shape. "I would have been your Red Ranger if the Nighlok had risen."

Mia laughed, covering her mouth with both hands. "How is...Jayden?"

"I'll be back," Trent said in the background. Neither Mia nor Jayden looked at him.

"We tried to call you. All of you, when the attack started. But we were too late, the Power was gone."

"Where – how did you get here?" Mia asked.

"How did you?"

Tony pushed past her, catching the end of the bed to keep himself on his feet. "Jayden?"

"Yeah." He pushed up a little to see him more clearly. "What are..."

"It's Antonio. Jay, I'm Antonio."

"An..." Jayden reached down towards him, almost falling off the bed before Mia and Cody hastily steadied him. Antonio laughed, scrambling onto the bed and wrapping both arms around him.

"You know each other?" Mia said, unable to think of anything else to say.

Antonio let go, sliding off the bed and rubbing at his face. "We were friends when we were children. I've been training since I left so I could come back to you, Jayden. I never stopped."

"I knew you wouldn't," Jayden agreed.

Trent came back in, Tommy on his heels. "A problem, guys?" he asked mildly.

"The world's wrong," Jayden blurted.

Tommy laughed. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Tommy."

"Sorry." Jayden flushed, rubbing at his face and trying to resettle himself.

"No problem. We've all been through a lot. Start over. You are?"

"Jayden Shiba, 18th head of House Shiba." He glanced at Mia, who nodded faintly. "I would have been Red Ranger if the Nighlok had risen."

Mia bobbed a shallow curtsy. "Mia Watanabe. I would have been Pink Ranger if the Nighlok had risen."

Antonio bowed his head briefly. "Antonio Garcia. I would have fought at his side if the Nighlok had risen." 

"I see." Tommy studied them for a moment before glancing around, pulling over a seat and settling into it. "Let's start from the start."


	14. What has gone before: What Was That?

"Hello?"

"Tell me you're feeling this, bro."

Tommy sighed. "Let me put you on speaker, Jase."

"Why, who's there?"

"Half my te – the Dinos, and the other half are on speaker."

"So it's not just me?" Jason sighed, relieved. He'd been jumpy all day, but he wasn't in touch with any of the others and hadn't been sure it wasn't just him.

"Really not just you," Tommy agreed. "Adam's been on, and TJ, and Cam Watanabe, and the kid from Ocean Bluff – Casey? And all of them have been talking to others. Near as I can tell, Jase, every Ranger on Earth is feeling this."

There was a long pause, broken when Trent said " _Dr O, we're going to have to go. They're calling our flight."_ His voice was tinny over the speaker phone, but understandable.

"You're coming home?" Jason asked. He glanced at his emergency bag, ready by the door. At least he wasn't the only one feeling the urge to go home.

"They're not the only ones," Tommy told him. "Trini's on her way in from Switzerland, and Adam talked to Kim, she's coming home, and Aisha's trying – it's harder for her, she's a long way from any transportation. The only one I haven't heard from yet is Kat, I'm just waiting for it to be late enough over there to call her."

"Bro, if she's feeling this, she's not sleeping anyway."

"Yeah, good point. Who's got – Ethan, can I borrow your phone?"

 _"We have to hang up,"_ Kira said quickly. _"We'll call when we land, Dr O."_

"Send them my number, Tommy, I'll pick them up and meet you," Jason offered. "They're coming into Angel Grove, right?"

"Are you sure, Jase?"

"I can wait that long. You've probably got stuff to finish up, right?"

"Yeah," he agreed on a sigh. "Trent, I'll send you the number, ok? When Jason meets you, he'll say 'may the Power protect you.' Don't go with anyone who can't say that, understand?"

 _"I understand,"_ Trent agreed.

"Paranoid much, Dr O?" Conner protested.

"Conner, this thing is hitting every Ranger on Earth. It's almost impossible to do that. We all use the Morphin' Grid but we filter it different ways, and for all of us to sense something at once – and this strongly? This is something huge, and I don't think it's possible for us to be too paranoid about it."

"Tommy," Jason said, half warningly. "Trent and Kira, I'll see you in about six hours, ok? Be careful."

 _"We will. Stay safe, guys,"_ Kira said, and hung up.

Tommy dialled another number and they all waited through the rings. _"Tommy?"_ Kat said as soon as she picked up. _"Thank god, I thought I was going crazy out here."_

"It's not you. Kat, can you get back here?"

_"I'm already trying, but I'm a long way from an international airport and even once I get to one, it'll be more than a day back to you. God, I miss teleporting."_

"Teleporting," Tommy muttered. "Conner, give me your phone."

"We're running out of phones," Conner pointed out mildly. "Where's Hayley?"

"I don't know, there was no answer at the Cyber – Cam?"

 _"This better be important,"_ Cam snapped. " _I'm trying to handle a hundred stressed out ninjas here."_

"It is. Is your teleportation system working?"

_"My what? No, it went down with ninja ops. Who do you need from where? We can still streak."_

"To Australia, or Africa?"

 _"Ah,"_ he said slowly. _"No. That's a bit far. What's going on?"_

"Everyone's coming home, to deal with whatever this is, but Kat and Aisha aren't anywhere near airports."

 _"I'm working on it,"_ Kat reminded him. _"Tommy, I have to go, I'll call in a little while, ok?"_

"Kat, we're using 'may the Power protect you' as a password, all right?" Jason told her.

 _"Got it, Jason, thanks."_ She didn't sound surprised to hear him, he noted.

"Hurry home." He tried not to sound as worried as he felt. They were running out of time, he could feel it.

 _"I'm doing my best,"_ Kat promised. _"I'll talk to you later."_

 _"May the Power protect you?"_ Cam repeated.

"Pass it around, will you?" Tommy said absently. "Anyone you trust, but especially Rangers. Got your team?"

_"I can't get in touch with Blake, and Hunter's still at his Academy, but we're talking to him. The others are here."_

Another phone rang; Jason frowned, trying to remember who was using what phone. Cam was on Conner's, so whoever this was was ringing Ethan.

"Hello?" Ethan said cautiously.

_"I'm looking for Tommy Oliver?"_

"Yeah, here, Carter," Tommy said quickly. "Tell me you've got your people together?"

_"We're all here, yeah. What's going on, Tommy?"_

"Phone tree sounds good right about now, huh?" Jason commented.

 _"Jason,"_ Carter said in surprise. _"You're next on my list to call. Do you know what's happening?"_

"Look, Carter, I'm going to set up a conference call, ok?" Tommy told him. "Everyone's feeling this and I want everyone in on it. Can you call back in – Ethan?"

"Half an hour? That should be long enough to get most of the people we need."

 _"Do we have half an hour?"_ Carter asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but I think so. Half an hour, all right?"

_"Got it."_

"Carter," Jason added, "we're using 'may the Power protect you' as an identifier, all right? Don't talk to anyone who can't say that, we need to keep this inhouse for as long as we can."

 _"Got it,"_ Carter agreed. _"Half an hour."_

 _"Do you still need me?"_ Cam asked when no one spoke.

"Yeah," Tommy said quickly. "Who are you in touch with, apart from the Thunders?"

_"Just you. What do you need?"_

"Nothing, then. If you can find Blake, get him in on the conference call, and make sure Hunter's on it too. And keep your students on the grounds if you can."

_"Got it. May the Power protect you."_

"Tom?" Jason said after a minute.

"Sorry, Jase, just thinking. Can you call the Reds through – we've talked to Carter – through Cole, then? His team's pretty scattered, or they were last I talked to him. Give them all the password and the time for the call."

"Will do. Talk to you in a bit. May the Power protect you."


	15. What has gone before: Friends

Trent turned his phone on as soon as they got through security, skimming through the handful of messages on it. "Ethan, mostly," he told Kira. "We missed some kind of conference call; practically every Ranger on Earth. All the older ones were talking in some kind of short hand, and Conner kept making them stop and go back and explain what they were talking about."

"Is Jason's number on there?"

"Yeah, uh..." They cleared the gates and he nodded towards one side of the path. "Don't need it, though."

Jason – or someone – was holding a black sign with 'DR. O' printed on it in white and yellow. Trent and Kira approached, halting a few steps away.

"May the Power protect you," Jason said solemnly. "You guys all right?"

"It's worse here than it was in New York," Kira said, shuddering.

Jason nodded, taking her backpack and slinging it over his shoulder. "This way. Angel Grove was home to the Rangers for six years. This city's steeped in morphin' energy."

"Not just us, then?" Trent shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably.

"No. A few other Rangers have come back into town, and they're all saying the same thing. Whatever this is, it's centering here. Although Hunter says Blue Bay Harbour's worse than the Thunder Academy, and that's completely the other direction from here, and Lily says the Pai Zhui Academy's almost unbearable. They've had to dismiss the students, they're regrouping them in Silver Hills, which is pretty bad but not as bad as Ocean Bluff." He paused to unlock his car, glancing at them. "I lose you?"

"This thing is centering in places where there are people who might be able to fight back," Trent summarized, sliding into the back seat beside Kira.

"You're quick. It took us a while to spot that," Jason said. "Belts on."

"If I were leading an attack," Trent said slowly, "I'd take out the people who could fight back first."

"That's right," Jason muttered to himself. "Yeah, Ryan spotted it before anyone else, and Tommy agreed. And if this is an attack –" he glanced upwards. "Then it's pretty damn effective. We're all jumpy and getting jumpier."

"Where are we going?" Kira asked.

"You're about to see some Ranger history, kids. It'll take about forty minutes to get there. Call your team; they aren't coming on this trip."

Trent dialled Ethan, got an engaged signal and tried Conner instead. When that was engaged too he called the Cyber Cafe and got hold of Hayley. _"Where is everyone?"_ she demanded.

"Hayley, are you all right?"

 _"Of course I'm all right, I just can't get hold of anyone! What's going on?"_ Her voice changed. _"Something's wrong, isn't it?"_

"We don't know anything yet. Hayley, can you get out to Dr O's?"

 _"Uh – yeah. Hang on a second."_ She spoke to someone for a moment, instructions on running the cafe, and then she was back with him. _"Trent, what's going on?"_

"We don't know yet, Hayley, but something's got every Ranger on Earth on edge. Dr O's been fielding calls all morning, from everyone. Kira and I are in Angel Grove with Jason, he's a friend of Dr O's..."

 _"I know Jason,"_ Hayley interrupted him.

"And all the others are coming back, or trying to."

_"What does it feel like exactly, Trent?"_

He grimaced, closing his eyes. "You know when someone's staring at you, and you can feel it between your shoulder blades and on the back of your neck? It's like that, but all over. And – a weight, pressing down. Like gravity's just got stronger."

_"Everyone's feeling the same?"_

"Kira is – and Jason's nodding. Something's really wrong, and it's getting closer. I'm really having to concentrate here to keep from going into camo, all the time. I keep wanting to fight."

_"Ok. I'm heading out to Tommy's now; I'll tell them you've landed, I guess that's why you're calling? And I'll see if I can figure anything out."_

"Thanks, Hayley."

Kira leaned in to add, "May the Power protect you."

 _"Always,"_ Hayley added, hanging up.

"Always?" Trent murmured.

"Our mentor used to say that," Jason told them. "May the Power protect you always. Listen, get some rest, you must have been up early to catch that flight."

"Up early? I don't think I've slept in two days," Kira muttered.

"We've got half an hour or so. Try and get a bit of rest."

Kira curled against Trent, closing her eyes. He didn't think she was asleep, though; when the car slowed and eased off road she opened her eyes again without moving.

"Nearly there?" Trent called forward.

"Almost, yeah. Feel up to a little hike?"

"Sure," Trent agreed, glancing at Kira, who nodded.

"Great." Jason pulled in. "Leave your stuff here; there's no one out here but our people." He swung out, going around to the trunk.

Trent slid out, leaning against the side of the car. They were parked in scrubland, at the base of a low mountain range. "Where are we?" Kira murmured, looking around.

"Got me." Trent pulled out his phone, sending a quick text to Conner and Ethan.

"Hey." Kira nudged him, gesturing towards the mountain. Two figures were approaching.

"Jason?" Trent called over his shoulder.

Jason rounded the car, tossing him two bottles of water. "Our guys, I told you. Carter!" One of the figures waved, and Jason added, "Carter's Lightspeed Red, and – that looks like Danny, Wild Force Black."

"Hey," Carter called as they came into range.

Jason went to meet them, gesturing to Kira and Trent to follow. "Who's here, Carter?"

"My team, except Ryan, he stayed on base. Miss Fairweather's here, though. Danny, Max and Alyssa. TJ's team – Astros? No Andros, though, he's off world..."

He kept listing names, but Trent lost track very quickly, especially since half the names were of people who actually weren't here. Danny grinned sympathetically at him. "It's a lot of names, huh?" he said softly.

"We've only met one other team," Trent agreed. "I haven't even seen the video."

"I have seen it and I still don't recognise half those names," Kira told him.

"You will when you can put a face to them," Danny promised. "We always do."

They started climbing; Danny dropped behind them to make sure they were ok. The path wasn't exactly steep, but it was tricky in spots and the Dino Rangers had to pay attention to where they were stepping. Jason, obviously more used to it, and Carter, who was lankier than them, climbed faster and were quickly out of view.

"How high is it?" Kira asked, stopping to take a drink from her water bottle.

"Not much further." Danny paused to wait for her. "They used to teleport in and out of here."

"I always thought that'd be a cool power to have."

They reached the top a few minutes later; Danny left them with a grin, going to join a small group of other Rangers. Kira slipped her hand into Trent's, gazing around the plateau. There had been a building here once; they could see the remains of the walls, overgrown now.

Jason glanced up and came across to them. "You want to meet people, or sit?"

"Where are we?" Kira asked. The sense of _wrong_ was so strong here she could barely stand up under it.

Jason glanced around. "This was the home of the first five teams of Rangers. This was the Command Centre."

"I'm up for meeting some people," Kira said. Jason nodded, turning to catch Carter's eye.

"You were on the first team," Trent said.

"Yeah. I spent a lot of time up here." Carter came across and Jason said, "Carter, Trent and Kira. Can you – Dana and Kelsey are here, right?"

"Sure, yeah. This way, guys. You're white and yellow, right?"

"Yeah." Kira tugged lightly at her yellow coat. She sometimes went weeks without wearing her colour, now – Dr O said the urge almost always wore off when the Power left – but she was almost head to toe yellow today, and Trent was wearing solid white. It had felt important, somehow. Most of the others, she realised, were wearing what had to be their colours, too.

"Yeah, I guess that was a bit obvious. Sorry. Dana." Dana was wearing mostly pink, apart from the too-large jacket wrapped around her shoulders. "This is Kira and Trent."

"Tommy Oliver's team, right?" She smiled at them. "Welcome."

"Does everyone know who we are?" Kira asked.

"Everyone knows Tommy. You're sort of famous at a remove."

"What are we doing here?"

Carter excused himself and Dana glanced around. "This is the center of whatever's going on. Some of the techs are on their way – some of them are already here – to see if they can figure it out."

"Techs?"

"Mostly blue rangers, a few support staff. Our tech wasn't a Ranger."

"Ours either," Trent agreed. "She's with the rest of our team. Or, she should be by now, anyway."

"Are you all right, Kira?" Dana asked abruptly.

"I'm just tired. We haven't slept, and we flew here, so the lag's a bit..."

"Sure. Come and sit down; there's some food around, I'm not sure what exactly, but I'll find out what. Alyssa!" She steered them to a mostly flat portion of wall.

Alyssa was wearing mostly white; she grinned at Trent. "What's up, Dana?"

"There's food going around somewhere, right? These guys need some."

"Sure, I'll go see what we have."

"How long do we have to stay here?" Kira asked.

"The weight gets easier after a while," Dana promised. "You won't notice it in a little while. Just hang in there."

"And the – like we're being stared at?"

"That hasn't gone away yet, but it's easier to manage without the weight. Just hang on for a little while longer."

Alyssa reappeared with a handful of energy bars and a couple of sandwiches. "Not much," she apologised. "Someone will be doing a food run in a while; I'll make sure they come by, ok?"

"It's fine," Trent said. "Thank you."

"Hey, us whites have to stick together. Relax a bit. Nothing's going to happen for a little while."

Jason and several others passed them, going back towards the path, and Alyssa stood to look over. "Oh, good," she said in relief.

"What is it?" Kira asked.

"Billy's here. Relax, guys. This won't take long now."


	16. What has gone before: Teammates

Tommy smashed the butt of a gun into a Warrior's eyes, finally bringing it down. He took a step back, swaying slightly, and felt Jason press against him from behind. They had a minute, at most, before another Warrior realised they were unoccupied and attacked.

It wasn't enough. Not nearly. They'd been fighting for – he risked a glance at the sky – almost half a day, now, most of that powerless. The Silver Guardians had been invaluable and he reminded himself muzzily to thank Wes and Eric later.

It might not have been so bad if they'd had any idea what the Warriors wanted. They're tried communicating every way they could think of. But it was all ignored; the Warriors simply kept attacking whether their targets were fighting back or not. They looked human, in clothes ranging from leather armour to chain mail and helmets in as many different styles, but Tommy was seriously starting to doubt they spoke any language at all.

Jason shifted suddenly. "Tommy?" His voice was thick with exhaustion and something else Tommy didn't dare think about.

"What?"

Jason pulled off his headset – Tommy's was long gone – and held it loosely in one hand. "That was – they're updating the list..."

"Oh, god," Tommy groaned. The first Ranger death – Max, from Wild Force – had taken everyone by surprise, and several were almost taken out when they paused in shock. The list was growing, though, despite all the help the Rangers were receiving.

"Tom..."

Tommy took a moment to actually look at him. "What? Jase, what?"

"Tom, it's Kim..."

He kept talking, but it hazed into static; Tommy literally couldn't hear anything he was saying. Zach was already gone, shot down protecting a group of civilians. Cassie was gone, protecting Carlos as he recovered from a hit. Blake and Shane were gone, unable to respond quickly enough to the loss of Power; it had hit some teams harder than others. The ninjas had struggled to protect their Rangers, but they'd been overwhelmed.

"Tom, we have to retreat," Jason said.

Tommy shook his head. "No."

"Tommy..."

"No!" He charged the nearest Warrior, screaming. He was vaguely aware of the Dino teens fighting nearby, working together to protect each other. The Power loss hadn't hit them so hard; they'd already been without power, after all, and the residual connection had barely been noticeable until it was suddenly gone.

"Tommy!" Adam's voice; he was fighting back to back with Rocky. Tommy wondered absently what had happened to Aisha; the news they were getting suggested that, though they were suffering the worst of the attacks here, the whole world was being overrun. For that matter, he wondered what had happened to Kat.

"We have to retreat," Jason said again. Tommy swung wildly, hitting a Warrior more by luck than anything else; it turned, eyeing them, and Jason took it down with a strike from his bo. "Tom!"

"No!"

"Dr O!" Conner was on his other side. "Dr O, we can't keep going like this..."

Tommy shrugged away from him, but now Kira was there, exhausted, terrified, and cradling what looked like a broken arm. "Dr O, please."

"What makes you think it'll help?" he asked Jason over her head. "They're following us, they have been all day."

The attacks were focused on Rangers and their various allies. They'd figured that out very quickly. As soon as he'd realised it, Tommy had had Cam send ninjas to streak everyone together, taking the fight as far from civilians as possible; halfway through the operation the Power had failed, or been lost or blocked, taking all civilian abilities with it. Any Rangers not already with the group were stranded wherever they were, alone until ninjas, Lightspeed Rescue troops or Wes' hastily dispatched Silver Guardian squads reached them. Armed Forces had been flooding in, too, but the strange Warriors were relentless and tireless and the combined forces were slowly being overwhelmed.

"They aren't following us any more," Jason told him. "Lightspeed Rescue disengaged a while ago, switched to search and rescue, and they weren't followed."

"Why didn't anyone..."

"We did tell you. _I_ told you. Tommy, we have to go. They won't follow us."

"Please, Dr O," Kira said again.

Conner lurched into them from the side, shoving them both down as hard as he could. Ethan was on his heels, forcing Kira's head down as a volley of shots rang overhead. Most of the Warriors were fighting with old fashioned weapons, swords and staves, flails and bow and arrows, but he'd seen a few with guns or blasters.

"Everyone all right?" Jason, still on his feet, started hauling people up. "Tom?"

"Yeah." Tommy took his hand, letting him haul him to his feet. "Ethan?"

"Still here." Ethan crouched by Conner. "Conn..."

Tommy knew before Ethan straightened, but he bent to check for himself anyway. Rising, he said tonelessly, "Jason, get on the headset."

"What?" Kira stared from him to Ethan to Conner and back, shaking. "What? No. Conn..."

Trent stumbled over, dropping to his knees beside them. "Conner," he whispered, reaching out shakily.

"This is your fault!" Kira rounded on Tommy. "You wouldn't go! This was you! We begged you! All you had to do was leave!"

Ethan caught her arm, dragging her into a hug. Tommy stared blankly at her until Jason caught his arm, jerking him around.

"We have to _go._ "

"Yeah," Tommy breathed. "Yeah," he repeated more loudly. "Yeah, tell them to retreat. We'll...is Lightspeed still standing?"

"Lightspeed, and the Hartford place, and the Academies. Silver Guardian HQ went down a while ago, but most of their people were out by then."

"Ok. Tell everyone just to go to wherever's closest. Bring anyone they can, any of the Guardians or the soldiers or civilians. Anyone they can reach."

"Trent?" Ethan said helplessly. "Can you...look, I can only handle one teammate going catatonic at once, ok? Please get up."

"Yeah." Trent stumbled to his feet, swiping his arm across his face. It left a streak of bright red that Tommy tried very hard not to look at. "Sorry, Ethan, I'm here."

"Come on." Jason caught Tommy's shoulder, jerking him backwards. Around them the Rangers who were left – Tommy swallowed hard against a surge of grief when he saw how few of them there were – were forming up, following them, clearing their path.

"Kira?" Tommy attempted.

She jerked away from his hand, actually circling Trent to get away from her. The former White Ranger looked helplessly at him, tightening his hold on Kira and steering her carefully along.

"Come on." Adam was on Tommy's other side. "We've got to get gone. San Angeles is the closest to here, but we need to vanish, Tommy, we have to split up, understand?"

"Yeah." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "Let's, uh – Jason, will you go with Ethan and the others?"

"Yeah, I got them, bro." He glanced at Adam, who nodded.

"You talked to everyone?"

"Yes. They're all retreating."

"Good. Good. Ok."

"Come on." Adam tugged him lightly onto another path. "Let's go."

"Jase?" Tommy halted, looking back at them. "May the Power protect you."

"May the Power protect you, Tom. We'll see you in San Angeles."


	17. What has gone before: Hopelessness

"Jayden?"

He didn't turn, standing in the gate and staring towards the mountain. Ji came to join him; he could tell the exact moment the older man saw what he was looking at. His steps faltered for a moment and he leaned against the gate when he reached it. "Is that..."

"It's the Tengen gate," Jayden said tonelessly. Black smoke rose into the sky over the hills. "Guess we know why the monks didn't make it down here."

"There are others here to protect," Ji reminded him. The city had so far been spared any invasion, but nearby cities were burning and he knew it wouldn't take long. Civilians had been flooding into the house, starting with Cody and his father and continuing with townspeople; the Shiba family had lived here a long time, and even if no one knew exactly what they were, they knew their best chance for survival was here.

Jayden sketched a shape in the air, looking faintly disgusted when nothing happened. "How can I protect anyone now?"

"Your symbol power may be gone, Jayden, but you are still the finest swordsman I have ever seen, and just as skilled in hand to hand."

"It's gone, Ji." He pulled the Lion Zord from his pocket; it was inert and unmoving. "It's all gone."

Ji nodded, thinking of that terrible moment and the feeling of something being ripped from his chest, watching Jayden and Cody collapse as their Symbol Power was drained away. It had hit Jayden hardest, the loss of the power he'd worked all his life to control and increase. He still shouldn't be on his feet, but he refused to rest, not while the townspeople were looking to them for help and protection. "The Power is gone," he agreed. "But your skills are not. Those were yours, not part of the Power. You've trained all your life, Jayden..."

"To be a Ranger."

"To be a _leader_. To protect people. It is your destiny."

He smiled faintly. "I wish the others were here. Do you think Lauren is all right?"

"I do," Ji said firmly. "As far as we know, the area she was living has not been attacked. And she is skilled, Jayden. I'm certain she's on her way here right now."

"Jayden! Mentor Ji!" Cody called from the door.

"What is it, Cody?"

"We got a broadcast on the radio." He jogged over to join them. "The Rangers' base in – is that the Tengen gate?"

"Maybe." Jayden turned his back on it, smiling reassuringly. "We can't be sure from down here. What about the news?"

"Uh – oh. The base at Mariner Bay's been destroyed. Two of the Rangers fell trying to rescue people, but the report thinks the rest of them got away."

"Mariner Bay," Jayden echoed with a sigh. "And San Angeles is already gone." He glanced at the walls, at the empty spaces where protective symbols had once shimmered.

"Go back inside, Cody," Ji murmured. The boy glanced once at Jayden before obeying. "We mustn't lose hope, Jayden..."

"I'll keep fighting. But there isn't much hope left to lose, Ji. We're still standing because they haven't bothered to come after us yet."

"Jayden," Ji protested.

Jayden took a deep breath, closing his eyes. "Sorry," he muttered. "That's – I know that's not true."

"There's no shame in fear, Jayden. Only in allowing that fear to overwhelm and turn to hopelessness. Your team may not be here, but you are not alone."

"I know." Jayden smiled at him. "I know. Come on; it's getting dark. They won't attack at night. We have a few hours safety."


	18. What has gone before: Hours

Time was passing oddly for Jarrod. He was sleeping a lot more than normal, but even when he was awake it moved in leaps and bounds. Sometimes one or another of the Rangers was with him; sometimes he was alone apart from Camille. Sometimes he could see sun through the window, sometimes it was night. Hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Camille was always with him, feeding him whatever he could keep down and checking his bandages. They talked sometimes, but Jarrod didn't remember anything specific they'd said, only the feeling of safety under her care.

He woke one morning – he thought it was morning, but it might have been evening; he wasn't familiar enough with the room to read the light – feeling more aware than he had for a while. Camille was sitting on the floor, back against his bed, humming softly to herself.

Jarrod reached down, letting his arm hang over her shoulder. She tipped her head back to see him. "Hey."

"Hi." He coughed to clear his throat. "Where are the others?"

"Casey's asleep." She glanced across the room; squinting, Jarrod made out a shape on a second bed. "The others are outside."

"Is he all right?"

Camille got up, sitting on the bed and linking her fingers through his. "Do you remember what happened?"

Jarrod frowned, studying their joined hands. "The animal spirits..."

"Yes," she agreed softly. "It wasn't just us. Every Ranger on the planet lost the Power, and the ones like you with extra abilities, it's all gone. It hit Casey hard. He's still recovering."

"Lily," he murmured, vague memories of seeing her fall coming back to him.

"And RJ," she agreed softly.

"I'm sorry. She was your friend."

"Yes." Camille shifted, curling against him and tucking her face into his neck. Jarrod wrapped his other arm around her, playing with her hair.

Casey woke a little later, sitting upright and glancing around. "Hey," Jarrod murmured. "How are you feeling?"

"How are you feeling?" Casey returned. "You're the one who got stabbed."

"Much better." He shifted slightly to check, but there was just a vague ache right now. "What's been happening?"

"We're hiding out right now. Since the Power went down, the students..." He trailed off.

"Where are we?"

"Under the Academy."

Jarrod looked around, frowning. "Under – Dai Shi's prison?"

"Below that. There's a bunch of rooms down here no one knew about. They won't do for long, but until we can figure out what to do with the students...what's wrong?"

"Camille's asleep."

"Yeah, she's been sitting up with you," Casey agreed. "What's wrong?"

Jarrod looked up, meeting his gaze in the dim light. Now that he thought about it, the light was too dim to be coming directly in; it must have been reflected somehow. "I've never seen her sleep around anyone but me."

Understanding washed across Casey's face and he slid off his bed to sit on the floor beside them. "Camille's human, Jarrod."

"What?"

"We lost the spirits and so did she. No more chameleon. She's human now."

"She can't..." His grip tightened without him realising. "She can't be human, Casey, she's thousands of years old."

"Yeah," Casey agreed. "None of us can explain it, including her, but it's true. She is human."

Jarrod shook his head but didn't argue. "What's been happening?"

"The attacks have stopped, more or less. They've destroyed most of the Ranger strongholds, and the Army bases and places like that. They seem to be pretty anti tech, anything they see gets destroyed right down to music players. And anything weapon like. They haven't copped on to _bo_ and _tonfa_ yet, but I don't think it'll be too long. Carrying a weapon, or committing violence of any kind, gets you killed on sight. Tech usually gets you killed. Anything else, it's fifty fifty, they might kill you or they might ignore you."

"What's the plan?"

Casey shrugged. "We've heard from Tommy Oliver. He's gathering up survivors, especially Rangers, outside of Angel Grove. He wants us there."

"Are you going to go?"

"We can't take the students that far. There's too many of them and it's too risky. Dom and I will go, once you're on your feet. We'll see what he wants."

"He didn't tell you?"

Casey smiled faintly. "To fight back, I'm guessing. Are you hungry? I'll go find something."

"Thanks," Jarrod murmured.

Camille sat up as Casey left, gazing blearily around. "Jarrod?"

"Right here."

"Oh." She lay down again. "I thought you were gone."

"No. I'm not going anywhere. Camille, can you still fight?"

"Fight," she repeated sleepily. "Yes. Why?"

"Casey is going to go and meet Tommy Oliver."

She sat up, eyeing him. "I know. Dominic's going with him. Why?"

"Go with them."

"Why?"

"He needs you."

"You need me."

"Always," he agreed softly. "But he's angry, and guilty, and terrified. And Dominic can't rein him in, not properly."

"Theo's thinking of going..."

"He can't do it either. Casey's their Red – still their Red," he said over her objection. "Even without the Power, he's still their Red. Theo can argue, and he probably will, but he won't – _stop_ him. Someone has to. Please, Camille."

"I don't want to leave you," she murmured.

"I don't want to be left. But it's important."

"I'm coming back here once they're safe."

"I wouldn't expect anything else."

Dom appeared, carrying a tray. "Hey," he murmured. "Feeling better?"

"Camille's going with you," Jarrod blurted.

"To Angel Grove? Good. We can use someone else with their head screwed on. You'll be ok here with the kids?"

"I'll manage. Thanks," he added, taking the tray. "Should we tell Casey, or...?"

"Not much point, he won't remember it. Just turn up when we're leaving, Camille, I'll make sure you know in time."

"Thank you," Camille murmured.

Dom turned away and Jarrod said hastily "Dominic?" He paused and Jarrod continued, "I didn't see Fran earlier. Is she..."

"She was with the ninjas, last I heard," Dominic said without turning. "They weren't fighting when we reached them and I asked her to stay there while I came here. And then we fell, and so did they. I haven't heard anything since."

"I'm sorry," Jarrod offered awkwardly. Dominic nodded once, continuing out of the room.

"Eat something," Camille murmured. "You've been sick for a while."

"I shouldn't have asked..."

"He's all right. Eat. If I'm leaving you here, I'm going to make sure you're fit first. You'll have to keep up with the kids, after all." Jarrod smiled faintly and started eating.


	19. What has gone before: Attitude

Sensei Kanoi stood, gazing across the fields. They'd kept one, for practice, because even now he would not allow his students' skills to slip. But the others were all in various stages of being dug up for replanting.

Marah came towards him from the direction of the buildings. It was odd, he thought, how differently she and her sister were responding to their grief and helplessness. Kapri was channeling everything into work; she trained longer and harder than anyone, worked to help with the rebuilding, shored up their borders and arranged security patrols. She was everywhere, it seemed, helping everywhere she was needed and several places she was not. One of these days she was going to crash, and it would not be pretty.

Marah, on the other hand, was focusing mostly on him; helping him, fetching and carrying, making sure he didn't need anything. The ninja troop leaders were already recognising her as his second, and he was happy to let that continue. His old bones ached when he tried to do too much, and he could not mask the pain now as he once had.

"They're gone," Marah said, coming up beside him and following his gaze.

"You still have time to follow them."

"No. I talked to Dustin, and we both agreed this is where I'm needed right now. Maybe later, when things settle down a bit."

Sensei Kanoi nodded slowly. Without Hunter here, his Thunder ninjas might be more difficult to handle, but they'd all agreed that if anyone was going to have a way to fight back, it would be Tommy Oliver. He'd said goodbye to Tori, Hunter and Dustin a little while ago, watching as their group gathered together. "I must say, though I would have understood if you'd gone, I am very glad you did not." He patted her hand a little clumsily. Cam had never much liked or sought physical contact, but his nieces were extremely tactile, and he was still learning what was appropriate and what wasn't. "Tell me, how is our patient?"

"He's doing a little better today, Uncle. I think he misses Ziggy. He didn't really know anyone else. But he's sitting up, and focusing, and he says his head doesn't hurt but I think he's lying, and he's not doing that short term memory thing, so overall I think he's a little better."

"Good, good. And his sister?"

"Oh, she's fine. I have one of Hunter's guys walking her around so she can learn the distances and things, she says that's the easiest way for her." She studied the fields again. "Is that going to work? They've been practice fields for years."

"We can only hope so. Tell me, how is Kapri?"

Marah rolled her eyes. "She's rewriting the sentry roster. Hunter gave her a couple of names from his group, people he thinks she should try out there. But then some of the Winds won't patrol with them, so she's basically doing the whole thing from scratch. I don't know why she doesn't just put them together and make them get along, it's stupid." She hesitated before continuing in the same bright tone, "He's up there again."

"I am aware," Sensei Kanoi said serenely. Their Warrior guard came and went on some schedule of his own, but he had not entered the grounds since they had stopped fighting back. "Since he has not seen fit to stop us yet, we must assume that he will not, and continue as though he were not present. Now, Marah, I will return inside. Do you wish to come, or remain out here?"

"You're not going downstairs." She trembled as she said it, just a little, nothing that most people would notice.

"Marah..."

"No, you're not. It's morbid, and it doesn't help you, and it just upsets everyone and makes them worry about you. So I blocked it off." She folded her arms defiantly, and oh, she looked like his brother now, though they'd shared no blood.

She was young, he reminded himself. And stripped of what had allowed her to fit in, here, and afraid, and almost alone.

"Very well," he said finally. "I shall not return to Ninja Ops, Marah. You have my word."

After all, he could mourn his son anywhere, not just in the place he'd fallen. And perhaps, now, it was time to stop mourning, and time to start honouring Cam by protecting those he'd valued.

Marah eyed him. "And you won't just set up some creepy shrine somewhere else?"

"No creepy shrine. I promise." He couldn't quite smile, but he didn't think she'd mind.

She grinned, cheerful again. "Thank you, Uncle." More soberly, she added, "It's not because I don't think he deserves it."

"I understand," he assured her, and he did. Kapri and Marah were grieving just as violently as he; Cam had been the first to accept them, after all, and the loudest voice to champion them whenever anyone called for their dismissal. But all of them were grieving so differently, they'd been unable to see it in each other.

Except for Marah, perceptive little Marah.

"I understand," he said again. "Come. Let us see if your sister will cease her work. A meal together might be pleasant, all three of us."

Marah beamed at him. "I'd like that, Uncle." Linking her arm through his, they started back towards the buildings together.


	20. What has gone before: Welcome to the Club

"Ok. Is that going to work?"

"Should do." Billy straightened, stretching. "Ow."

"You all right?" Tommy asked.

"Mmm. It's been a while since I had to work this fast with this much at stake." He studied the plans for a moment more before nodding. "This'll work."

"I hope so. There's only so long we can scavenge stuff. How long to put it together?"

"The parts are all here. God bless Zordon and his packrat tendencies."

"That was probably Alpha," Jason said.

"Probably," Billy agreed. "Give me four or five people who know what they're doing, Tommy, I can have this done in two days."

"That fast?" Jason asked in surprise.

"When I say 'done' I mean 'in place'. There'll be fine tuning. This kind of system is difficult, but I think it's our best bet."

"No miracles. Got it. Who do you want?"

"Danny. Justin and Carlos. Uh..."

"Ethan?" Tommy suggested.

"Yeah. And the Mystic green, Xander."

"You think?"

"Yeah. 'Sides, I can't take all your Blues, can I?"

Tommy smiled briefly, scrubbing a hand over his face. "No. There's plenty to do, yet."

"You really think this is necessary?"

"Yeah. I'm afraid it is."

Billy nodded. "Then I'd better get to work. I can take those people?"

"Yeah. Tell – god, I don't even know who's keeping track right now."

"Adam is," Jason told him.

"Right. Tell Adam what you're doing, and get going. Let us know what's going on."

"Right," Billy agreed, pushing away from the table and heading out of the little room.

"You need to rest," Jason told Tommy.

"Can't, bro. Too much to get done."

"It's not going to do any good if you collapse. Just take a break. Everything's on track for now."

Tommy worried at a fingernail. "Think Billy can do it?"

"You're talking about Billy, bro. He can do pretty much anything."

"We need it. We haven't a chance without it."

Jason considered him for a minute. "This isn't like you, you know."

"What isn't?"

"Giving up."

"I'm not giving up."

"Hunkering down, then."

Tommy sighed. "We have civilians here, Jase. Children. I have to do what I can to keep them safe."

"Defeating these invaders..."

"How are we supposed to do that?" He should have sounded angry, but he just sounded tired and defeated. "We have no weapons. No way to fight back. The _Army_ can't take these guys down, Jase, and we're not Rangers anymore. We're nothing. I can't do anything about the invasion, but I can do something about keeping these people safe."

"Now I know you need to get some sleep. When was the last time you got any?"

"Uh. What day is it?"

"Dr O?" Ethan leaned in through the door. "We have incoming."

"He's off duty," Jason said.

"Really? I didn't think he knew the meaning of the word. Someone better come along, they're nearly here."

"Who are they, do we know?" Tommy asked, pushing to his feet.

"Someone said Rangers, but I don't know who."

"Who are we missing?" Tommy asked Jason.

"Ninjas, Jungle Fury, the other half of Wild Force."

"Ok. Let's go."

"Tom..."

"Just this," Tommy promised. "Then I'll get some rest. You can walk me down there yourself."

"I will get Dana in on this if I have to," Jason warned him.

"I know. Come on. Where are they, Ethan?" he added over his shoulder, heading for the main stairwell.

"Coming in from the city."

"Good. Where are the others?"

"My others? Trent's in the infirmary –"

"Again?"

Ethan smiled briefly. "Helping, not being helped. And Kira went off somewhere with Trini; something to do with the kids, I think."

"Sounds like Trini," Jason murmured.

Tommy nodded. "Is she still..."

"Angry with you?" Ethan filled in when he trailed off. "Not as much, I think. I'd stay out of her way for a while yet, though."

"Yeah." Tommy nodded at Rocky as they passed him, pausing before stepping out from under the overhang. Half a dozen people were coming up from the city, accompanied by Danny and Carter and a couple of Silver Guardians.

"Recognise anyone?" Jason murmured.

"No."

"That's not good."

"No."

"That's Dustin," Ethan said from his other side. "And Tori, and, uh. Hunter. I don't see the others, though." He glanced up at Tommy's stare. "What?"

"You can see them from there?"

"You can't?"

Tommy scowled, looking away. "No Cam? Kapri, Marah, Sensei?"

"No."

"Damn," he muttered, scanning the group as they came closer. Carter came up to them, started to offer him a sheet of paper, and gave it to Jason instead.

Hunter came to a halt in front of him. "Dr O."

"Tommy," Tommy corrected him gently. "You need medical help, Hunter, you or your people?"

"No. Just – we've been traveling for a while now."

Tommy nodded. "Jase, let's get them into rooms on this level for now, we'll sort something else out later. Meals and water, clean clothes. Hunter, make sure your people are ok. We'll talk tomorrow, ok?"

"Yeah." Hunter blinked, glancing around as his group started to file by; he was counting them without even thinking about it, Jason could tell.

"Hey." Tommy waited until Hunter met his eyes. "Welcome to the New Command Centre."


	21. A Real Big Problem

Jayden was a problem.

To be fair, he didn't mean to be. He was doing his best to fit in; drilling with the others, taking whatever assignments he was given without complaint, helping anywhere it was needed. Everyone Tommy asked said variations on the same thing; quiet and serious, but friendly or at the very least polite to absolutely everyone, and willing to help out with anything he was asked. Before even being officially discharged, he'd gone to help unload the fruits of one of Carlos' trips, and he'd done odd jobs around the infirmary to help Dana.

The other thing they all said was _his people are absolutely loyal to him.._

Antonio had barely left his side since they'd found each other. Cody had already been keeping close to him, and Jayden protected him instinctively and unthinkingly. Mia had taken it upon herself to make sure they were settling in and had everything they needed, and she'd been hassling Carlos to get the four of them moved somewhere together. Jayden himself just looked vaguely embarrassed when anyone brought that up to him.

He wasn't a Red Ranger. He hadn't given any sign of looking for Red Privileges, as they were known, though they were less about privilege and more about responsibility. Tommy wasn't sure he'd take them if they were offered. He wasn't asking any questions or looking for any information, apparently happy to let things happen around him without trying to influence them.

He was clearly a Red Ranger. It was visible in everything he did. He loved his team, he protected them, and they reciprocated. Tommy was fairly sure if there was a difference of opinion between him and Jayden, or Jayden and anyone else in the Mountain, Mia and Antonio would go with Jayden without a second thought. And the more comfortable he grew here, the more chance there was of a difference of opinion. Jayden was a true Red, he would speak up when he thought it was necessary. He wouldn't be able to help himself.

"Still brooding?" Rocky asked, leaning on the railing beside him. Tommy grunted without looking away, and Rocky followed his gaze down into the gym. This was one of the smaller training gyms, usually unused. Today, though, Mia was sitting on the sidelines with Cody, watching as Jayden and Antonio fought with swords.

"They're pretty good," Rocky said after a minute.

"He beat Jason," Tommy said tonelessly.

"Tony?"

"Jayden. Jason ran his tests earlier, so we could start assigning him on missions if necessary. Jayden beat him on swords and worked him to a standstill in hand to hand. Antonio – he's using Antonio now – he didn't quite manage that, but Jason said he's very skilled. He just lets his passion get the best of him. Jayden switches off when he's fighting; it's all about the technique."

"He's not switched off now," Rocky noted. Below them, Jayden tripped Antonio and laughed breathlessly at him, propping his sword across his shoulders. Antonio stuck his tongue out at him, rolling slowly to his feet and exaggeratedly limping across to tag Mia in, collapsing onto her seat and taking several swallows of water.

"No. He never is around Antonio, and hardly ever around Mia." Tommy shrugged at his look. "They're his team, Rocko. He's comfortable around them. If I went down there and challenged him it'd be completely different."

"He knows we're up here," Rocky noted, seeing the brief flicker of attention.

"Yeah."

Rocky turned his back on them, folding his arms and leaning against the railing to watch Tommy. "I'm not sure I get the problem here, Tommy."

"They're his. Loyal to him, not us. But he's not a Red, not really. He's never served. He has no loyalty to us."

"We saved his life."

"And he's grateful, but it won't keep him here if he decides he wants to leave. And they'll go with him."

"So let them. We're not a prison camp. We don't keep people who don't want to be here."

Tommy shook his head. "You were a Red, Rocky..."

"I was an anomaly. I was never a leader. You know that."

"He's going to start getting frustrated. He's not being heard here, and he needs to be. Reds need to be, he needs to protect his team and he can't do that if he doesn't know what's going on."

"So tell him."

"He's not a Red!"

"That's a fluke of timing. Inherited power, right? If his..." Rocky floundered briefly.

"Nighlok."

"Nighlok, thank you, had attacked six months earlier, he'd be in charge of defending Earth. You know that; active Rangers take precedence over retired. We'd all be answering to him."

"He's eighteen."

"And the closest thing Earth has to an active Red. Do you know he's been training since he was five?"

Below, Jayden was holding off both Antonio and Mia, idly discussing what was for dinner that evening as he did so.

"Give him an honorary spot. Send him out to the academies if you're really worried; Jarrod isn't following the colour structure, and neither is Sensei Kanoi. Let him have his team, you're just annoying him by separating them. The more he feels he's being heard, the less likely he is to kick."

"I can't afford to lose Rangers. Even his."

"You can't keep him if he doesn't want to stay."

Tommy closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths. "I'm going to talk to him," he said after a minute.

"Good choice."

"Come with me, and if I say something stupid, then, y'know..."

"Smack you over the head?" Rocky suggested.

Tommy glared. "Kick me. Discreetly."

"You take all the fun out of it, boss."

"Yeah, sorry about that." He headed for the corridor and the stairs that would take him down to the gym proper.

"What was this room meant for?" Rocky asked curiously, trailing behind him.

"Who knows. Billy's found a bunch of the plans, but they're all labeled in ancient Eltaren and he doesn't read it."

"Guess it doesn't matter."

"No."

"I'm just glad there were enough beds in storage. Talk about paranoid."

"Well prepared," Tommy corrected him mildly. "Zordon was well prepared, not paranoid."

Jayden was still fighting when they came in, but he broke off, whirling away from Mia and propping his sword across his shoulder again. "Ranger Tommy," he said politely, glancing at Rocky.

"Ranger Rocky," Antonio murmured, coming to stand at his shoulder.

"Ranger Rocky," Jayden repeated, nodding.

"Sweet moves," Rocky said cheerfully.

"Thank you."

Tommy turned to Antonio. "Can you go out tomorrow, Antonio? We're running low."

"Out?" Jayden repeated.

"Tony's our best fisherman," Rocky said brightly. "Your team's been going out, Tony, but they're not doing as well without you."

"It's in a valley just a little way from here," Antonio said quickly. "And we use nets and traps. Nothing that'll attract any attention."

"It's safe?"

"Safe as anything else that goes on around here."

Jayden nodded slowly. "Take Cody with you, then. Extra hands, and he needs something to do." Glancing at Tommy, he added, "If that's all right, of course."

Rocky kicked Tommy, who glared at him. "Antonio's team is his own business. He can take anyone he likes. You're right that we like everyone to help out, but Cody doesn't have to go outside; he's young and there's plenty to do in here if he'd rather."

Jayden glanced back at Cody, who immediately moved to Antonio's side. Shrugging, he looked back at Tommy. "He can try, right?"

"Yeah. He can try. Jayden, can we talk?"

Jayden studied him for a minute before offering his sword to Antonio. "Mia."

"Just you," Tommy told him.

"You're bringing Ranger Rocky, I'm bringing Mia."

"Why Mia?" Rocky asked curiously.

Jayden glanced at Antonio, smiling faintly. "She's less likely to hit anyone."

"I resent that," Antonio muttered, accepting the sword. "C'mon, Niñito, let's find the t – group, and see what gear you need for tomorrow." Cody followed him out, carefully pulling the door closed behind them.

Tommy took a couple of steps away to lean against a wall. "Jayden, have you heard of Red Privileges?"

"I haven't heard of anything. Ranger Dana only signed me out this morning. I'm not even sure I have somewhere to sleep yet."

"You were to be a Ranger. You understand the colours?"

"Enough."

"We lost some of the Red Rangers. The ones who are left are leaders; team leaders, group leaders. We're the ones the others come to."

Jayden had taken a small box from his pocket and was staring at it. "I'm not a Ranger."

"Fluke of timing," Tommy said, ignoring Rocky's smirk. "I haven't been Red for...how long, Rock?"

"Ten years? Bit less if you're counting the moon mission, but..."

"I'm not a leader," Jayden said more strongly. "I'm happy to help however I can, but I'm not a leader."

Tommy considered him for a moment before nodding. "If you insist. So that you know, we're also in contact with two groups outside the NCC. If you think you'd be happier there, you're welcome. Your friends could go too, if they want."

"Thanks. I'll remember."

Tommy turned away, hesitated, and looked back. "Jayden? The day we met, you said 'the world is wrong.' What did you mean?"

"Oh. Symbol power."

"Symbol power," Rocky repeated.

"Inherited power." He gestured towards himself and Mia. "All five of us, our families, and a couple of others including Cody. But it wasn't part of our Ranger abilities, it was separate."

"Ok," Tommy agreed slowly.

"It's gone."

"All the civilian powers went with the Ranger ones. You're not the only team who had other abilities."

Jayden shook his head. "Symbol power is blood and bone. It can't be taken. It's like taking away our ability to digest food, or lie down and sleep. Part of us. There's no way to separate it without killing us."

"But it is gone," Mia murmured.

"I know." Jayden shoved his box back into his pocket. "Something's wrong with the world."

Tommy frowned. "The Dino powers were DNA encoded."

"But you were altered," Rocky pointed out. "Billy said you just reverted when the power was stripped."

"The ninjas..."

"Learned to access a power that's been cut off. Tommy, you know this."

"Yeah." Tommy shook his head slightly. "Yeah. Thank you, Jayden; I'll make sure the Blues know about that, and we'll keep it in mind."

"May I ask a favour?"

"Of course."

"I was with others, until we got separated. And there are others who should have been on my team, like Mia. Can – you said you're in contact with other groups?"

Rocky nodded. "Give me the names, I'll pass them around."

"Thank you." Jayden dug a sheet of paper from a pocket, passing it over.

"The man's prepared," Rocky said in Tommy's general direction, running an eye over the names.

"I was planning to ask. I just didn't know who."

"Lauren Shiba," Rocky read. "Sister?"

"Yes." Jayden was very, very carefully not looking at Mia, Tommy noted.

"Older or younger?"

"Older. Lauren's three years older than me."

"And you were going to be Red?" Tommy asked. "On inherited power?"

"It's...complicated. She has just as much training as I do. If anyone could manage out there..." He rubbed self consciously at the scar on his wrist.

"We'll watch for her, and I'll run the names against our internal census," Rocky promised. "I talked to Carlos; we can put you four together, but you might have to start sharing if other people reach us."

"No problem," Mia agreed quickly.

"Good. Then whenever you're ready, head down to Delta Wild, 324. Say it back."

"Delta Wild 324," she repeated. "Thanks, Ranger Rocky."

"Thank you," Jayden echoed.

Rocky shrugged. "It's not much, but at least you guys can stay together."

"Thank you," he repeated. "And what can I do to help?"

Rocky glanced at Tommy, who didn't react. "We'll give you another day or two," he said easily. "Make sure you're healed up. If none of us have come after you in three days time, find the nearest Ranger and ask for me or Adam, all right?"

"I will," Jayden agreed.

"Come on." Mia tugged lightly at his arm. "Let's go find the others, ok?"

Jayden let himself be towed away. Tommy pushed away from the wall, taking the list from Rocky and scanning through it.

"Ranger, Ranger, Ranger, Mentor, Lauren, and a dozen civilians," he murmured.

"Just like a good Red, huh?" Rocky said innocently, and ducked, laughing, when Tommy swung at him.


	22. Life

"So how does this work?"

"How does what work?"

Jayden gestured around. "This. All this. All I know so far is the Rangers are in charge, you have an infirmary, there's some kind of schooling, and the food's pretty ok. And some people go fish."

Mia smiled. "That's a pretty good description."

"We can put it on the tourist brochures," Antonio suggested. " 'The food's pretty ok, and we go fishing'."

"Idiot," Jayden said affectionately. Cody was laughing soundlessly.

Mia took pity on him, grinning at Antonio's wounded look. "This was the base for some of the early teams; I'm not sure exactly which ones, because some of them had a different base but in the same place. If you look down on it from above, it's a big circle, so they divided it into four quadrants; alpha, beta, delta, gamma. All the public levels are named for ranger teams."

"Delta wild," Jayden said, understanding washing over him.

"Delta wild," she agreed. "Those levels include the dorms and barracks, the schoolrooms, storerooms, infirmary, gyms, rec rooms, canteens. Anything civilians need."

Jayden glanced at her. "Is that us?"

"I'm not really sure what we are right now, honestly." He nodded thoughtfully and she continued, "There's loads of other levels, but apart from Rangers, we only see them if we're doing something specific."

"Like?"

"Foraging; they use lots of entrances then. There's a hydroponics system somewhere really low down, they grow all kinds of stuff, and they farm chickens and rabbits and stuff."

"And I use a lower entrance when I'm taking my gang out fishing," Antonio added lightly. Catching Jayden's look, he added more seriously, "It's as safe as we can make it. Not any more dangerous than anything else goes on around here. I promise. I wouldn't have let Cody decide to come otherwise." Cody rolled his eyes at him and he grinned innocently.

"I can come with," Jayden offered. "Since they haven't given me anything else to do yet."

"If you want to. It's pretty boring. Have you ever fished before?"

"Boring sounds good right about now. Where's our room, Mia?"

"Delta wild 324," she said on reflex. "This way."

The rooms, when they finally found them – Antonio made Jayden do it, using the ridiculous 'You are Here' maps posted on the walls every so often, and it took a while – weren't anything special; 324 was a short corridor with six bedrooms and four bathrooms off it, three doubles and three bunks. Antonio immediately picked a bunk room for him and Jayden, and Jayden sent Cody to the furthest end of the corridor, as far from possible intruders as possible. Mia claimed the double room opposite him, vanishing inside to check it out.

"The rooms are a bit weird," Jayden murmured.

"This is dorm style. There's others that are like an RV or something. You know, bedrooms, living room, everything. They usually use those for families. Top or bottom, Jay?"

"Whichever," Jayden said absently; a moment later he changed his mind. "No, I want the bottom."

"It's not actually any safer on the top," Antonio pointed out, but he scrambled upwards anyway, lying down to test it. "This is actually pretty comfortable. What did you tell Ranger Tommy?"

Jayden glanced at him. "That I'm not a Ranger."

"Huh," Antonio said neutrally.

"Stop that. I'm not a Ranger."

"If you say so."

"Antonio."

Antonio spread his hands innocently and Jayden grimaced at him. "What about this fishing?"

"It's tomorrow. Do you really want to come?"

Jayden was silent for a long time; Antonio let him be, half-listening to Mia talk quietly to Cody in the other room. He thought she might be telling the younger boy a story, keeping him occupied and away from them.

"I want to help," Jayden said finally.

"All right."

"But I don't – I can't have peoples' lives in my hands, Antonio."

Antonio climbed down to his level, eyeing him. "What happened?"

"What?"

"You were training to lead a team. You were ready for it even then. What happened during the First Attack?"

"Nothing," Jayden said automatically, and when Antonio glared he insisted "Nothing happened during the First Attack. We weren't hit."

"So what happened after? And where's Ji? You haven't even mentioned him."

"Antonio..." Jayden glanced up as Mia's voice rose briefly. "I'll tell you," he said more quietly. "I promise I will, you and Mia. But not here, and not today. Please?"

"Alright," Antonio agreed. "But I _will_ sit you down and _make_ you tell us if you take too long."

"I have every faith in you," Jayden agreed, turning as Cody came in. "Hey. How's your room?" Cody made a 'so-so' gesture and he smiled faintly, affecting a serious look. "Well, you could always go back to the kiddie dorms if you don't like it." Cody didn't bother to answer that one, and he grinned.

"I'm hungry," Antonio said abruptly. "Let's go find the nearest canteen. No more trays brought to your bed, Mr Ex-Invalid."

Jayden pushed him off the bed.


	23. Sunrise

Ethan leaned against the corridor wall, yawning. Struggling college student or not, he'd never quite gotten the hang of early mornings. It didn't help that he was on the northwest side of the Mountain; what little he could see outside was still dark, though the sun was rising.

Madison and Chip arrived, Chip dragging one of the plastic crates they stored the fishing equipment in. Ethan went to help him, nodding at Madison.

The Mystic Force were the closest they had to an untouched team. Their Red, Nick, had been in the Mystic Realm, helping with the evacuation of the mystic creatures and trying to find out what was happening, when the Power fell. Without it, the Mystic Realm was completely inaccessible, no one in, no one out.

The Mystic Force team insisted that Nick was still alive, in the Realm with his cousin, parents, Daggeron and their allies. Ethan hoped he was. It would be nice to have one team that hadn't been decimated.

Maddie glanced out the door, eyeing what she could see of the sky. "I hate getting up this early," she told no one in particular. "Is Tony coming today?"

"He was planning to." Ethan glanced down at the crate, stirring the contents. "I think there's more nets in here than usual."

"That'll explain why my arms hurt," Chip said cheerfully, shaking them out. Maddie grinned at him, patting him sympathetically.

"There, there. You'll be fine."

Ethan glanced around at footsteps behind them. "Morning, Tony."

"Morning," Tony said brightly. "Have you guys met Jayden? And this is Cody. Ethan, Dino Thunder, Chip and Madison, Mystic Force."

"You came in recently, right?" Ethan said, offering Jayden his hand. "There's this whole debate about whether you're a Ranger or not."

"I'm not a Ranger," Jayden said pleasantly. "Can I help carry that?"

"Sure," Ethan agreed, waiting for him to grip one end of the crate before lifting it. Some days he missed his powers more than others. "You haven't seen this before, Jayden?"

"I came in from outside, but I think we came towards the Mountain from the south."

"You think?" Maddie repeated.

Jayden glanced back at her. "I wasn't very well. I don't remember much of it."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I'm fine now."

"If you came from the south, you haven't seen this yet," Ethan said cheerfully. "Chip, come take the bucket so he doesn't drop it."

"I'm not going to drop it," Jayden protested, but he let Chip take it, stepping aside out of his way.

"You might drop it," Tony told him. "Some people do."

"Why?"

Ethan half-turned, slipping through the entrance and turning to steady the crate as Chip followed him. Maddie was behind him with Cody, and Tony followed them with Jayden on his heels.

Ethan stopped, lowering the crate, and they both watched as Jayden's gaze tracked upwards. He tilted his head back, reaching for Tony's shoulder to steady himself and taking a step back as he threatened to overbalance. "How does..."

"It's good, isn't it?" Tony said with a grin.

Ethan followed Jayden's gaze, trying to remember when he'd seen this first. Some time fairly early on, he thought, while they'd all still been reeling and half-numb. He didn't remember his first reaction to the incredible view.

They were standing in the base of an almost spherical depression; above them the mountain curved out over their heads, and half a mile or so in front of them the far wall curved up as well. Trees and bushes grew out of the sides, visible now only as they blocked out the lightening sky.

"Are we in a caldera?" Jayden asked, still studying the opening. "How does that work with the Mountain right there?"

"Trust you to know the name," Tony said affectionately, patting the hand still resting on his shoulder. "It's not actually as narrow as it looks. Ranger Cole spent two days up there weaving nets and vines and things to make it less obvious from outside."

 _Huh_. Ethan tilted his head, studying the way they were standing. That was interesting. Glancing at the others, he saw that Maddie had noticed it as well, but Chip, as ever, seemed completely unaware.

"Come on, I'll show you two around," Tony continued. "Ethan, can you guys get set up? I'll be there in a couple of minutes."

"Take your time, Tony," Ethan told him. "It's not like the whole community depends on us, or anything."

"Antonio."

"Sorry?"

"Antonio," he said again. "That's my name."

"Oh. Sure."

He bent to pick up the crate again and they headed down the path towards the river.

 

"Nice guy," Jayden murmured, keeping his voice low enough that Cody wouldn't hear.

Antonio glanced at him. "Ethan's Red died in front of him during the First Attacks," he said neutrally. Jayden flinched, and Antonio added more gently, "Ethan's all right. Sarcastic, is all. You'll get used to him. Come on."

Jayden followed him, glancing back to make sure Cody was with them. "How big is this place?'

"Roughly circular, roughly half a mile across. We do some foraging here - well, I don't, cos I wouldn't know which ones to pick - and apart from that..."

He trailed off, ducking into a small clearing and stepping aside. Jayden followed him, smiling at the sight of the pen. "Chickens."

"Among other animals in other pens, yeah."

Jayden smiled faintly. "And we thought we were smart scavenging from shops along the way. Why aren't there more people out here?"

"Only the workers are allowed out, and it's early for them. We'll start seeing them in a bit. There's an indoor arboretum for everyone else to see sun and green; the Rangers think it's dangerous to let too many people out at once. Come on."

They reached the side of the river, almost all the way across the valley, just as Chip was fixing the last net into place. "There you go, boss," he said cheerfully. "That look right?"

"Looks good from here," Antonio agreed. "Cody, if you're going up there, be careful. The banks are slippery, and the current's pretty fast." Cody hesitated where he was, and Antonio added, "It's fine, you can go, but just be careful, all right? If you get washed in under the cliff it's a huge pain to find the way out. It's like an Enid Blyton story or something, underground rivers," he added to Jayden.

"Who's Enid Blyton?"

"I'll go with him," Maddie offered, putting down the net she'd been mending.

"Anything to get out of sewing," Chip said affectionately.

"Hey, the kid wants to look around, I'll go with him. We won't go far."

"Hang on," Antonio ordered, rooting in the crate and coming up with a plastic bag. Unrolling it, he pulled out a whistle on a string; gesturing Cody closer, he tied the string around his neck. "You get in trouble, blow the whistle and keep blowing until someone comes," he ordered. Cody nodded quickly, turning to head up stream. Maddie smiled at them, following him.

"You don't use rods?" Jayden asked, studying the set up.

"Current's too fast. Nets work better, and we can make sure we don't over fish or take the babies or anything." Antonio settled himself on a rock, wincing at the chill; the sun wasn't showing through the opening yet, though the sky was fully bright. "Come sit down and tell me what you've been doing."

Jayden joined him, watching the nets. "If this is here, why the hydroponics? Mia said you keep fish inside as well."

"They're not as good as these ones," Chip told him.

Antonio grinned. "We can't catch or pick enough out of here for everyone. The hydro systems give a higher yield and we can keep the plants fruiting, apparently, and grow non-native stuff as well. Besides, any time there's Warriors in the area, Ranger Tommy declares this off limits and has the tunnel blocked."

"Ranger Tommy," Jayden murmured.

"Yes?"

He glanced across at Ethan and Chip, both busily repairing nets. "You don't call them Ranger."

"It takes too long when we're wrestling with the nets," Ethan said without looking up. "Besides, there are Rangers who call Dr O Ranger Tommy. Being Earth's longest serving Ranger has its perks."

"And disadvantages, I suppose," Jayden murmured, quietly enough that only Antonio heard him. More loudly, he added, "Can I help with those? I'm supposed to be helping."

"Wait until the nets start to fill, there'll be plenty to do then," Ethan advised him.

"You do this every day?"

"Nah. Two in three, give or take. It depends what else is going on and how low our stocks are getting."

"Hey, maybe if Cody's here Antonio won't curse so much," Chip suggested.

"Careful," Antonio said lazily, leaning back on his hands. "I might have to ban you from fishing trips."

"You mean I can't get up at dark o clock anymore? Darn, what will I do with myself?"

"Sleep," Ethan suggested.

"Sleep, yeah, that sounds good. How many more insults do I have to give before you ban me, Tony?"

"Antonio."

"That's what I meant."

Antonio glanced away, grinning. "Jayden, look up."

"What am I looking for?" Jayden tipped his head back, shoulder brushing against Antonio's; he felt their fingers tangle together and smiled.

"You'll know it when you see it," Antonio assured him. "Just keep watching."

Jayden did as he was told, idly scanning the trees above them. He could hear a goat calling from somewhere behind them, Ethan and Chip chatting quietly, and the river running past their feet. Antonio was warm and steady beside him.

The sun rose over one edge of the opening and the valley flooded with light. Jayden smiled in delight, reaching for a sunbeam and letting it play over his fingers. "I haven't seen a sunrise in a long time." Glancing towards Antonio, he added softly, "I'm glad I saw it with you."


	24. Sunset

Jayden fell into a doze after a while, lulled by the sunlight. Antonio let him do it, and Chip and Ethan kept their voices down to avoid waking him.

Cody and Maddie reappeared a little later; Cody's sleeves were wet, but the rest of him looked fine. "What happened?" Chip asked, shifting over to make room for Maddie on his rock.

"You had one job, Mad," Ethan said, heaving a long-suffering sigh.

Maddie grinned, settling beside Chip and taking up half of the net he was working on. Fixing the nets was a never ending job, and anyone who came out to fish worked on nets between hauls. "He dropped something in the water. I told him I'd get it, but he went in himself. It wasn't deep or fast or anything, so I let him do it."

Cody went straight past them, leaning against Jayden's rock until he woke up. Somewhat muzzy, he said "What's going on? Are you all right, Cody?"

"I got wet," Cody told him.

Antonio's eyes widened, but he didn't look up from what he was doing, and as far as he could see none of the others did either.

"So I see," Jayden said calmly. "The sun's very warm here, do you want to take it off to dry?" A moment later he added, obviously in response to something Cody had done, "I don't think Maddie will mind."

"There might be a spare top somewhere," Ethan offered. "We usually have a few bits floating around. It'll be too big, but better than nothing, right?" He turned to dig around in the crate beside him.

"Thank you," Cody said warily. His voice was too soft and he clearly had to think about what he was saying, but it didn't seem to be hurting him at all.

"No prob." Ethan pulled out an old top, sniffing it warily. "It's a bit fishy, but yours'll dry up really fast in this sun." 

"If Jayden stops hogging the best drying rock, anyway," Antonio said, deliberately light. "Come here, we'll do some actual work. Cody, when you're ready you can give Ethan a hand, ok? We'll be pulling the nets in a few minutes, so at least one of these has to be ready to go in instead."

Jayden came to join Antonio; he looked perfectly calm, but his hands were shaking. Antonio bundled some of the net into his lap and leaned forward, ostensibly showing him how to repair the rips and tears in it.

"Are you ok?" he murmured.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Antonio eyed him but didn't push. "Good. And now you're going to have to tell us what happened, or else he might. Breathe, Jay, I didn't mean right now, I meant in general."

"I said I'd tell you," Jayden said defensively.

"I know, and I know you will. Mia's not patient." Raising his voice, he added, "Everyone ready to lift the nets?"

Lifting the nets was dirty, hard work. Antonio sent Cody to help Maddie get their lunch ready and gave Jayden a quick crash course in preparing the fish they'd caught; they had an ice chest, but it didn't hold much, and Ethan and Chip were dispatched back to the Mountain with the catch while Antonio and Jayden reset the nets.

They did it twice more, lifting the final net as the sky darkened towards evening. Apart from one of the goat girls, they hadn't seen anyone else all day; the girl came to bring them a pan of fresh milk in the afternoon, and was sent away with fresh-cooked fish to share with her group.

Jayden was folding one of the nets, paying the task far more attention than it needed. The sun passed out of view overhead and the air darkened all at once; he looked up, startled.

"Sunset," Cody told him.

"So I see. I wasn't expecting it to be so fast. Thanks, Cody." Cody shrugged, helping him pack the net away, and Jayden glanced around. "Is that everything?"

"Cody, your top," Maddie reminded them, pointing to it. Cody grinned, tugging off the spare one and pulling on his own.

"Are we ready?" Antonio asked, coming back from the river bank. "We're late. It's going to get cold pretty quick."

"I think so." Maddie looked around, checking. "Yep. We're ready."

"Excellente. Let's get back inside. This job is more tiring than I remembered."

"You've only been gone a few days, and you sat around for hours and worked for maybe twenty minutes at a time," Ethan pointed out.

"Gutting fish is emotionally draining," Antonio protested. "Little fishy faces."

"Uh huh. Come on, beastmaster." Chip lifted his end of the crate, grinning at the look of outrage on Antonio's face, and headed back towards the Mountain.


	25. Leaving it all Behind

Tommy wasn't quite sure what was going on.

It was something to do with the school kids, he knew that much, so Trini had to be involved. He'd been noticing them around for the last two days, and they all seemed to be in a terrible hurry, checking around corners and running everywhere. He wasn't too worried about it; she knew how important it was to keep them out of the way of the Rangers.

At least, he hadn't been worried until he found himself standing outside a little used store room, listening to whispers and shushes from inside.

This part of the complex wasn't lit; Tommy was carrying one of the solar lights, and he could see another shining through the crack under the door. He debated for a moment before pulling the door open.

At least three voices shrieked in glee or fear, and a paper ball bounced off his chest and rolled away. Tommy watched it roll along the corridor before looking back into the store room.

"Sorry, Ranger Tommy!" someone called.

"Come out here where I can see you," he told them. They did, somewhat reluctantly; three kids, one of them carrying the light. All three, he noticed, glanced up and down the corridor before looking at him. He focused on the one he recognised. "What's going on, Cody?"

"We thought you were a zombie, Ranger Tommy," Cody said quickly. Absently, Tommy noted that his speech was near perfect now.

"A zom..."

Someone rounded the corner – they weren't carrying a light, visible only as a moving shadow against shadows – saw them and growled. The other boy and the girl shrieked and ran; Cody looked longingly at the discarded ball of paper before tugging a new sheet out of his bag, balling it up, and launched it at the approaching figure, who stopped dead.

He glanced urgently at Tommy. "I have to go, it only stops them for five minutes..."

"I'll explain to Ranger Tommy," the motionless figure said. "Run along, Cody. I'll get you next time."

Cody grinned, hurrying away, and Tommy went down the corridor to meet Ziggy. "What's going on, Ziggy?"

"We're playing Zombies," Ziggy explained, leaning against the wall.

"Zombies?" Tommy repeated.

"Yes. Some of us are zombies, and we're hunting down the others, and if we catch them they become zombies. Or they hit us with balled up paper and get five minutes to run off again."

Tommy scooped up the two balls of paper, offering them to Ziggy. "Why?"

"Paper doesn't hurt when it hits you. Some of these kids aim pretty wildly when they're in a hurry."

"Not that. Why zombies?"

Ziggy considered him. "D'you want the real reason, or the one I gave Ranger Trini?"

"Start with one, then we'll try the other."

"Exercise, strategy, working together; they're allowed band together against the zombies. Learning their way around without those stupid maps."

"They're wrong on purpose," Tommy said mildly.

Ziggy shrugged, adding "And it's something different, a break from the normal stuff."

"That's the one Trini got?" Tommy asked. Ziggy nodded. "What's the real one?"

Ziggy looked away for a moment. "At some point, they might get in here. And if they do, it'll be because all of you are dead. If the kids know how to hide, how to move around without being seen, they might do better against them."

"You think so?"

"No." He shrugged. "Not really. But they'll feel better about it. We're staying out of the important places, they're not getting in anyone's way, they're having fun leaving real life behind, and if any of them have figured out why we're playing this, they haven't told anyone."

"How long is this going on for?" Tommy asked briskly.

"Today is day two of four. If there's any humans at all left by then, they win."

"And what would happen if, say, some packets of paper were left laying around the place?"

Ziggy grinned. "The humans would have a much better chance. It won't help next week, though; next week is about evasion, so there's no weapons that'll work against the zombies. And the week after that, zombies are smart enough to open doors and follow trails and work together. I better go, they won't have gone very far."

"Want the light?" Tommy offered.

Ziggy grinned at him. "Zombies aren't smart enough to use lights, Ranger Tommy. Not this week, anyway."

"Tommy. And I don't agree. I think you're pretty smart."

Ziggy grinned again and then let his face go slack, lifting both arms and moaning. From around the corner two people shrieked, and Tommy could just about hear small feet running away. Ziggy lurched away, rebounding off the wall twice before making it around the corner.

Tommy shook his head ruefully, turning away and trying to decide who was best to talk to about leaving paper around in a few strategic places.


	26. Enemies

Danny was working in the drip room one morning when Jayden slipped in, careful not to upset anything. "Ranger Danny?"

"It's just Danny, down here," Danny told him. "How can I help?" Over Jayden's shoulder he could see Justin watching them.

"I came to see if I could help. There's no fishing today, and Ranger Dana doesn't need me."

"Do you know anything about hydroponics?"

Jayden studied the set up, frowning. "I can fetch and carry things."

"One of the storerooms needs sorting," Justin offered. "We've been putting it off 'cos it isn't vital, but it's mostly lifting and sorting things. I can show him what to do."

"Sure you don't want the day off?" Danny asked.

"I don't do very well with nothing to do," Jayden told him. "I'd rather be helping out."

"If you're sure."

Justin showed him out of the room and Danny got back to work, vaguely aware when Justin came back and started work again. Justin was surprisingly good at growing; he had little interest in the actual plants, but he knew exactly how to get the best possible performance out of the systems.

They worked for a while; Cole came in to offer them lunch, and Danny asked him to check on Jayden as well. The next time he had to pass the storeroom, both men were in there, shifting pieces of machinery around and sorting buckets and boxes. Danny grinned and asked the nearest Guardian to sort out lunch instead.

Justin and Cole were both long gone, and Danny was just thinking about finishing up for the night, when Mia tapped at the door. "I'm sorry, Ranger Danny, have you seen Jayden? Someone said he was down here, but I've looked all over."

"He was helping to sort out a storeroom, but I thought he was finished." Danny finished up what he was doing and led Mia to the storeroom.

Jayden was still working, carefully labeling the last few boxes. Danny blinked in surprise, studying the room. "This is amazing. I can't believe you did all this."

"Ranger Cole did a lot of it." Jayden pushed the last box into place and straightened up, stretching out his back.

"I notice you didn't stop when Ranger Cole did," Mia said pointedly.

"I like to be busy."

"Well, you're finished now, so let's go. We'll just about have time to eat." She smiled at Danny. "If he's not finished, he'll be back tomorrow."

"No, it looks perfect. We'll be able to find everything now. Thank you, Jayden." Jayden smiled faintly, turning to follow Mia away. "Wait! There's a washroom, just down the corridor there. It's labeled as Steam Pipes, but I don't know why, there's no steam in it. You're kind of dusty."

"Thank you," Jayden said, letting Mia tow him away.

 

They ate in silence, more or less, exchanging quiet observations on the food or the handful of fellow diners or things they'd done that day. Mia was a much more restful person to be around than Antonio was, Jayden noted, though he felt a little guilty about the observation.

"Do you need to be anywhere tonight, Mia?" Jayden asked as they finished up.

"No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Something I need to talk to you and Antonio about."

She nodded without asking him anything else. "Cody's staying with a friend tonight, but if you want..."

"He doesn't need to hear this, he was there for most of it. Which friend?"

"Maybe I shouldn't have said friend. Our three youngest kids came in together, fairly early on, with one of their fathers. They've stuck together pretty close since then, but the younger boy, Bridge, seems to have attached himself to Cody. Cody likes them, so he offered to stay over to give Sky's father a hand. It's hard wrangling a five year old and two four year olds."

Jayden nodded, smiling faintly. "I'm glad he's making friends. Are you finished?"

They headed back towards their dorm, talking quietly along the way. Inside, Mia slipped into one of the unused rooms to get it ready, and Jayden went to find Antonio.

Antonio was working on something on the tiny desk in their room. Jayden watched for a moment before asking "Are you busy?"

"Never too busy for you," Antonio assured him without looking up. "Need me right now?"

"Yes. Please."

He nodded, scrawling the last line and looking up. "There, it's done...are you all right?"

"Yes, of course."

"You're so pale."

"I've just been inside all day." He held out a hand; Antonio took it, following Jayden without question into the spare room.

Jayden let go of his hand, waving him to sit. Antonio obeyed, glancing at Mia, who shrugged faintly.

"I have a sister," Jayden announced.

He explained it all to them; their father's plan to beat the Nighlok, necessitating his childrens' separation and leaving Jayden as a figurehead. Why he had always been isolated from others, apart from Antonio. How, when the attacks had started, people had flooded into the Shiba House for protection. "Ji wanted to move on," he said, staring fixedly at the wall behind them. "We'd heard that Tommy Oliver was gathering people together, and Ji thought that we should go at once. Safer to be with others, and the team would probably head there. But I wanted to wait. I thought Lauren would come home. I overrode Ji and I made everyone wait. Just one more day. I didn't think one more day could hurt."

Mia stood, taking Jayden's arm and drawing him down to sit between them. Jayden allowed her to do it, but he was stiff and rigid between them.

"The afternoon of my extra day, the house was overrun by a group of – bandits, I guess. The anti-violence ruling hadn't come through yet. They attacked the House, killed just about everyone they could reach, ran off a few others, stole what they could carry and dragged some of us along."

"Some of you," Antonio murmured.

"Cody, Ji, some of the townspeople I didn't know, two of our workers, and me. I was – they kept separating us..."

He was rubbing convulsively at the scars on his wrist. Antonio reached across, taking his hands gently, keeping his grip loose.

"I know they killed some of us," Jayden continued, voice low. "I couldn't break free. Cody did it, in the end, I don't know how. I still don't know, I haven't asked him. I tried to go back and look for the others, but he got so terrified, and I couldn't leave him behind."

"You were hurt by then?" Antonio asked, leaning over to touch Jayden's side.

"Yeah. That was – yeah. We tried to keep them in sight, see if we could rescue anyone else, but I couldn't keep up. And then Deker found us, and a day or so later Merrick and his friend. And I don't remember much after that until I woke up here."

"I'm sorry, Jayden," Mia said quietly. "I tried to get to the Shiba House when the attacks started, but I couldn't."

"Probably a good thing. I'd only have gotten you killed as well."

Antonio flinched. "You didn't get anyone killed, Jayden."

"I made them wait."

"You said there were townspeople there. Adults? They could have gone off on their own if they were worried, not listened to an eighteen year old boy they'd never met before. And I remember Ji. He wouldn't have let you overrule him if he didn't think it was right."

Jayden shook his head without answering, and Mia said quietly, "You were injured, Jayden. You can't blame yourself for that."

"Not for that," Jayden agreed distantly. "But I waited. I talked them into waiting. I as good as handed them to their deaths."

"Idiot," Antonio said affectionately. "You made the best decision you could with the information you had, Jay. I don't know anyone who can blame you for that."

"It wasn't the best decision," Jayden said miserably. "I just wanted Lauren back. I made everyone wait because I wanted her to come home."

"You didn't make anyone do anything," Antonio said patiently. "You gave them an option and they chose to take it up."

"They thought I could help them."

"You're eighteen, Jay. Not the Messiah."

"More like the very naughty boy," Mia agreed. "If Tommy Oliver saw you now, there'd be no question you're a Ranger, taking responsibility for things that aren't your fault."

"I'm not a Ranger." Jayden pushed to his feet, backing away from them. "I can't be responsible for anyone's life. Not after messing it up so badly."

"Too late," Antonio said lazily. 

"What do you mean?"

"I mean my life's in your hands, Jay. It has been since we met, and especially since we met again in the infirmary. I trained ten years to be at your side, and I'm not backing down just because you're having a crisis of confidence."

"That goes for me too," Mia agreed. "You're my leader even if the Rangers never acknowledge it."

"And I'm pretty sure you'd have to pry Cody away with a crowbar," Antonio told him. "Like it or not, Jayden, you're our Red. And we'll keep following you, even if you never accept it."

Jayden was shaking his head, but he'd given in. "I don't understand you," he murmured. "I've just told you what happened, and you're still willing to – if it's the oath, Mia, that doesn't count any more," he said, turning on her.

"It's not the oath," she said calmly. "My grandfather's oath to your grandfather doesn't count any more, not in this world. I didn't know you as a child, but I know you now, and I am happy to follow you and put my life in your hands. I believe that you won't let me down."

"That said," Antonio added, sitting upright, "you ever see any of those people, you point them out to us, Jay, got it? We'll deal with them."

"Got it," Jayden agreed, vaguely dazed.

"Has Cody talked to anyone?" Mia asked.

"Not that I know of."

"I'll talk to Trini and Alyssa, see who might be best to try. No details," she promised at Jayden's look. "But it might be better for him to talk to someone who isn't you."

Antonio caught Jayden's arm, turning it over to study the scars. "They're fading," Jayden murmured, tugging lightly.

Antonio tightened his grip just slightly, enough to let Jayden know he wasn't letting go. "Doesn't matter. I won't forget. And I mean it. You see any of those people, I want to know."

"It wasn't anywhere near here. I don't think we'll see them."

"Still." He ran a gentle thumb over the scars. "Do you feel better now?"

"I feel tired now."

"It'll do that. Come on. Let's get you settled."


	27. Success

Maddie glanced up as Cody and a couple of friends trailed into the dining hall. "Looks like someone got caught by the zombies," she noted.

"I'll be glad when this round's over, I keep having to chase them out of hydroponics," Xander said, twisting to look.

"I thought they weren't allowed in there?"

"Trini petitioned Dr O and pointed out that the whole point of the exercise was for the kids to learn their way around the whole Mountain. They stayed out of individual quarters, but that was only restriction. Besides, they come down to work in hydroponics all the time, they know to be careful."

Jayden paused by the table, tray in hand. "May I sit here?"

"Sure," Maddie agreed. Civilians didn't often mix with Rangers, but Jayden was now a fixture on the fishing trips and she wasn't going to send him away. "This is Xander, and my sister Vida."

"Jayden. Antonio's supposed to meet me."

"Room for plenty more, mate," Xander told him. Maddie watched Jayden blink at the Australian accent, but he didn't comment, just sat and began eating.

"The fish was pretty good today," Xander told him helpfully.

"I'm not so fond of fish anymore," Jayden said apologetically.

"Ha!" Vida grinned at him. "That'll pass. Wait and see. Maddie and Chip did the same thing."

"Where is Chip?" Jayden asked quickly. "He's on your team, right?"

"He's a zombie," Xander said. "They're rounding up the last few stragglers. Saw your boy come in, it looks like he got bit."

Jayden looked around, finally seeing Cody in a corner of the room with his friends. "No, he's one of the last two," he said with a grin.

"There's another whole day left," Xander pointed out. "Think he can make it through?"

"Probably. Cody can surprise you."

"If any of them can, Cody can," Maddie agreed. Cody only came fishing when it didn't interfere with school or projects nowadays, but he often came to see them off in the morning and she was fond of the boy.

"As long as you're not planning on sneaking him outside in the morning," Xander told her. Off-handedly, he added, "The ebb and flow room's empty right now, the system's draining between rounds. I bet no one'll be in there for most of the day. Mind, it's also a dead end."

"Weighing up the pros and cons is an important skill," Maddie said seriously.

"Ebb and flow?" Jayden repeated.

"One of the hydro systems," Vida told him. "They use a few different kinds in case one goes down. Xander forgets that not everyone knows or cares what they are. Who's the other one?"

"Other..."

"You said Cody was one of the last two."

"Oh. It's a kid called Troy; he's a couple years older than Cody, but he doesn't have anyone else here, so they've kind of made friends. I'm just waiting for Cody to move him in with us, to be honest."

Antonio dropped into the seat next to Jayden, leaning comfortably against him. Jayden passed him a spare fork, apparently unsurprised when Antonio started picking at the meal. "What are we talking about?" he asked between forkfuls.

"Pros and cons," Jayden told him. "Or ebb and flow, or Troy, depending on which part of the conversation you mean. No, you can't have my drink, get your own."

"I'm so unloved," Antonio pouted, making a show of hauling himself to his feet and trudging away to the counter for a drink.

"Mate, can I ask you a question?" Xander asked, leaning forward. "Are you and him..."

"Yes," Jayden said, immediately adding, "No. It's complicated."

"Always is," Xander agreed, nodding sagely.

"How would you know?" Vida asked. "You've never had a girl. Or a boy."

"Says you." Leaning towards Maddie, he added in a stage whisper, "You haven't told her about us yet, then?"

"Not yet," Maddie said, equally as staged. Jayden was smiling, looking down at his plate, and she told him gently, "It doesn't matter, Jayden. It doesn't change anything."

"Yeah, we're just starved for gossip around here," Xander agreed.

"Ignore him, that's what we do," Vida advised him, rising to her feet. "I gotta go; guard duty."

"Want a buddy?" Xander offered. "You're somewhere on the south low, right? I have to get down to aeroponics."

"Sure. See you around, Jayden. Wish Cody and Troy good luck."

"Thank you."

Antonio came back as they left; the table was mostly empty now, but he still took the seat right next to Jayden, leaning against him. "Mmm, water," he said brightly, slurping it just a little too loudly. Jayden grinned, looking fixedly at his plate, and Maddie laughed. It was nice to see them loosen up a little; being inside the Mountain always seemed to make Jayden tenser than he was outside.

"How'd Cody do today?" Antonio asked, spearing a piece of lettuce and making a face. "It's day three, zombies working together, right?"

"You'll be pleased to know Cody is one of the two surviving humans in the Mountain," Jayden told him.

"Yes!" Antonio hissed, and then blinked when he realised they were staring at him. "I mean, good for him."

"How much did you bet?" Maddie asked.

"Bet? Madison, I'm shocked you'd think such a thing of me. Shocked and hurt. As though I'd bet on a young child like that. I don't even know who's holding the book this time around. A foraging trip."

"To avoid one?"

"No, to go on one. They won't let me out as long as I keep producing fish."

"What do you want to go out for?" Maddie protested. "We get to go out every day."

"Different kind of out," Antonio reminded her. "I'd like to go outside and look up without having a Road Runner flashback."

"Is it dangerous?" Jayden asked. He was still studying his plate, but his whole bearing had changed.

"Everything's dangerous," Antonio reminded him gently. "It's not any worse than anything else, and it's a specific search, not a random forage. It'll be fine."

"Ok," Jayden murmured, rising to his feet. "I should go and talk to Cody. I'll see you later. Night, Maddie."

"Leave him," Maddie said automatically, and Antonio glanced at her. "He's fine. Bring him back something nice, and next time don't spring it on him."

"Bring him back something nice?" Antonio repeated incredulously. "That's your advice, 'bring him back something nice'? As if he's five years old?"

"No, as if you care about him and worry about his feelings," Maddie said serenely. "Now go after him."

"You just told me...!"

"And now I'm telling you to go after him. Go on."

Antonio threw up his hands and went after Jayden, leaning over his shoulder to talk to Cody. Maddie watched for a moment, until Jayden relaxed; then she looked back at the tray, grinning when she realised neither boy had eaten Jayden's dessert. "Awesome."


	28. Lost

"So what exactly are we looking for?" Antonio asked.

Zhane glanced back at him, obviously considering. "You're a man of the place, right?"

"Man of the world," Carlos corrected him with a sigh. "Really, Zhane, the 'clueless foreigner' thing isn't funny."

"It's hilarious," Zhane told him, deadpan. Looking back at Antonio, he explained, "We're looking for some things that aren't really on the approved supplies list, so we need discretion. Hence, the small group."

"Doesn't know 'man of the world', but correctly uses 'hence'," Carlos muttered.

"I'm a man of many contradictions," Zhane said cheerfully. "Antonio? We can put you on a different run if you'd rather."

"Is it something dangerous?"

"No."

"Then it's fine. Where do we need to go?" Antonio considered him for a moment before adding, "Clueless foreigner from where? You don't have an accent."

"Long story."

"Do we have something else to talk about?"

"Good point," Zhane admitted. "Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

"Ok," Carlos interrupted. "I know you know what that is, because I was there when TJ made you sit through all six movies. Do it properly, Zhane."

"Do you want to do this?" Zhane demanded huffily.

Carlos turned to Antonio. "Zhane's from another planet, but whatever he says, he knows plenty about Earth. He's been visiting on and off for ten years."

"Another planet?" Antonio repeated. "That is very cool. How come you speak English?"

"I learned," Zhane said briefly.

"What's your planet called?"

"KO35."

He made a face. "Not very descriptive."

"Earth's not very imaginative. Why not call your planet Dirt, or Soil?"

"Point," he admitted. "How'd you get to be a Ranger for Earth, then?"

Zhane told him the story as they walked, embellishing wildly. Carlos stepped in every now and then to rein him in, but mostly he was allowed to go on as he pleased.

Antonio listened, more and more disbelieving. "You turned Astronema good?" he said finally. "Just you? All on your own?"

Zhane shrugged. "Her brother might have had something to do with it, I guess. Just a little. But it was mostly me."

Antonio looked to Carlos, who shrugged. "I wasn't there, man. Not for that part, anyway."

"Where are they now? Ranger Andros, and Astronema?"

"Karone," Zhane corrected him absently. "She's on Miranoi, as far as I know. And Andros was on a mission when the attacks started, and he hasn't come back yet."

"Without the Power, he'd have a lot of trouble flying the Megaship," Carlos added. "It's designed for Rangers, it'd be pretty hard to fly. He'll have had to look for another ship."

Zhane tipped his head back, looking up at the stars. "He'll get here. We've been out of contact for a while. He'll definitely get here."

"Can I see the ship?" Antonio asked eagerly. "When he gets here?"

Zhane grinned. "Sure. I'll make sure of it."

"And if he doesn't, I will," Carlos added.

"Did you visit many other planets, Ranger Carlos?"

"Sure, yeah."

They talked for a while about that – Zhane kept expanding on Carlos' descriptions, adding things that Carlos hadn't seen but that he swore were true – before Zhane said abruptly "What about you, Antonio?"

"What about me?" Antonio said in surprise.

"Jayden was going to be a Ranger, right? And you were going to be on his team?"

Antonio brushed a hand over the Shiba symbol he'd drawn on his top, mimicking the Rangers' team emblems. "I wasn't part of his team, no, but I promised to fight by his side."

"What is it he was fighting? Demons?"

"Nighlok. Japanese demons. Scary stuff."

Something whistled out of the darkness and struck Antonio in the head. He went down hard and fast, darkness closing in around his vision.


	29. Evil is Fun!

Zhane glanced down as Antonio stirred, coming awake. "Back with us?"

Antonio shifted, pushing away from Carlos to catch his balance. "What's going on?"

"We're being mugged," Carlos told him.

"Seriously? Who'd want to mug a Ranger? It's not like you turn people away."

"Maybe we don't want to live under someone else's rules," the blonde girl who seemed to be in charge suggested. "Maybe we don't want to fight your war."

"How exactly are they mugging us with no weapons and no violence?" Antonio asked, touching the back of his head ruefully.

She smiled mock politely. "See those big, wire walls all around you? See those nice bright lights on top of them?" Antonio turned to get a better look. Lights like that would definitely attract the wrong kind of attention. "Give us what you're carrying, or..." She trailed off, staring at him.

Zhane and Carlos moved together to get in front of him. "We need what we have," Zhane said, trying to get her attention off Antonio. "We can get you more..."

"Move."

"Look..."

" _Move_ or the lights go on right now!"

"Ranger Zhane," Antonio murmured, pushing lightly at his shoulder. Zhane scowled, taking exactly one step to the side; Carlos didn't move.

"What is that?" the blonde demanded, pointing at him.

"What is what?" He looked down at himself self consciously.

"That!"

Zhane started to laugh suddenly, "Sorry," he managed when Carlos glared at him. "It's funny if you're in on it. You should get this, Carlos. Antonio, your team symbol is a family crest, right? Your leader's crest?"

Antonio touched it automatically. "Yes."

"And your leader has a sister? A trained, strong sister who's probably skilled enough to be stay alive, and smart enough to figure out a way around the 'no violence’ thing, and leader enough to gather other people around her?"

"Yeah," Antonio said, dazed. "Yeah. All those things."

"Not very Samurai to attack passersby," Carlos stage whispered.

"It's not a very Samurai world anymore," Zhane said absently.

"Lauren." Antonio stepped forward, fingers curling around the wire. "It's you, isn't it? Lauren Shiba, eighteenth head."

Lauren stared at him for a moment before turning away. "Let's go."

" _Hime_ ," one of her men protested.

"I said let's go!" She pushed him aside and he scowled, heading off to gather the rest of her people together.

"Lauren, don't do this," Antonio begged. "He's looking for you. He never stopped. Every Ranger on Earth knows your name. Please." She hesitated and he went on quickly, "He waited for you. He waited right up until the Shiba House was overrun, until he had to go. He thought you'd be coming, and he was determined to be there for you."

She turned, studying him. "He waited for me?"

"As long as he could. Longer than he should've."

Her face hardened and she stepped away. "That makes him a fool, then, doesn't it."

"Lauren, please." Antonio scrambled along the wall, trying to keep up with her. "Don't make me tell him you were here and you left. Please. He's right back at the base. Come with us and you can be with him."

"I have people to take care of."

"Jayden..."

"My little brother has obviously done well for himself," she snarled. "Rangers to fight his battles, and you, whatever you are..."

"I'm his friend."

"How nice for you. Would he come looking if I kept you?"

"He'll come anyway. We won't be able to stop him once he knows you're here."

"Let him look. We're not easy to find. Your friends can go." Shifting her gaze to Zhane, she told him, "I want supplies, and I want Jayden to bring them to me. I have people to protect and keep alive." One of her men opened the enclosure, waving them out.

"You don't need Antonio for that," Zhane said warily. "He's right, once Jayden knows you're here we won't be able to keep him away."

"You'll forgive me if I don't take your word for it. Get out now or stay in there with the lights on."

"Go," Antonio murmured.

"Sure?" Carlos asked softly.

"We'll be back," Zhane promised. Antonio nodded, watching as they started back towards the base. Some of Lauren's people went with them.

"Well, c'mon," Lauren snapped. He looked up, confused, and she rolled her eyes. "We're not waiting for my perfect brother out here in the street. Come on."

 

"He isn't perfect, you know."

Lauren didn't answer. She hadn't spoken yet, but every time Antonio shifted she glared at him.

He did it now, to get her attention. "He isn't perfect," he repeated.

She rolled her eyes but obliged him. "Who's not?"

"Jayden." She snorted, looking away, and Antonio continued, "He's impulsive and thinks he isn't worth anything and he makes stupid decisions, sometimes. But he loves you. He never stopped looking for you..."

"He hasn't seen me in twelve years!"

"That wasn't his fault. Wasn't your fault either. And he _waited_ for you. You're a Ranger, or you would have been; there were people in his care and he waited for you."

"He's an idiot."

"Yeah." Antonio laughed softly. "Sometimes. But he's loyal and brave and looking for you."

"You keep saying that like it should mean something."

"Doesn't it?"


	30. Family

Antonio politely refused the food he was offered. Whatever the group had been living on, it clearly wasn't as good as the food in the Mountain, and he'd seen too many half-starved children hiding in the shadows of Lauren's base to feel comfortable taking anything from them.

Lauren was standing nearby, dealing with her lieutenants, and he took the opportunity to study her without being noticed. She was shorter than he'd realised, much shorter than Jayden, and she didn't look much like him; but the determination in her every movement and the way she dealt with her people reminded him very strongly of her brother.

Finally finished, she came to sit next to him, plate in hand. "Our food not good enough for you?"

"I'm not hungry," he said evenly.

"Suppose you stuffed yourself up there."

"Not exactly, but I had enough, and I won't take food from your children." Lauren snorted, looking away, and he added, "Why won't you come up?"

"Because Rangers are not the people to be following right now."

Antonio stared at her. "You were going to be a Ranger."

"So I know what I'm talking about. We're fighters, not administrators. Team leaders, not colony leaders. It's not what we're meant for. We can't do it for long without burning out, and we can't step back while we feel needed." She stared across the room, eyes distant. "You have children up there? Orphans?"

"Some. And some kids who came in with people. We give them a dorm parent, and they go to class and help out in the arboretum and they're never hungry. We have enough for that."

"And what if you're attacked?"

"They know what to do. And the Rangers will do whatever it takes to give them enough time. What happens if you're attacked?"

Lauren looked back at him. "We have five children here. Twelve down to three. No matter what we do, we can't keep them fed."

"We could."

One of Lauren's men approached, bowing briefly. " _Hime_ , there's a teenage boy in the square. He has a hand cart with him."

"Is he alone?"

"As far as we can see, yes."

"Good. Go and surround him; don't touch him, and don't speak to him. I'll be there in a moment."

He nodded, turning away. Lauren stood, looking down at Antonio. "Is he alone?"

"They call you Princess," Antonio noted. "Do they know who you are?"

"Is he alone?" she repeated impatiently.

"It depends."

"On?"

"How loudly he yelled at Ranger Tommy. Do you want us to take the children?"

"Yes," Lauren decided. "You can go. I'll have the children ready in a moment."

"All right. Princess?" She looked back, and he said quickly, "Please try and be kind to him. He really did wait for you. He's been looking for you."

"I can't go with him, Antonio."

"You don't have to go with him. Just please don't be cruel to him."

Lauren jerked her chin towards the door and Antonio stood, hurrying out. No one tried to stop him as he made his way out of the building and down into the square. Jayden saw him coming but didn't move, clearly nervous of the men standing around the edge of the square.

"Are you hurt?" he asked as soon as Antonio was close enough.

"No. I'm fine."

Jayden reached for his arm, eyes wide. "Antonio..."

"Yes," Antonio interrupted him. "It's Lauren. She's fine."

"Is she..."

"She's not coming with us. But she's fine."

Jayden started to answer, but Lauren appeared in the doorway and he fell silent, squeezing Antonio's arm so tightly it hurt. Lauren studied them for a moment before coming towards them, trailing children behind her.

She paused a few steps away, watching Jayden carefully. "Antonio said you'd take these children."

Jayden jerked, nodding too quickly. "Lauren..."

"The children," she said over him.

He blinked, bewildered. "Yes. We'll take care of the children. Lauren..."

"Is that our supplies?" she went on determinedly.

Jayden stepped silently aside and Lauren studied the contents of the cart. Antonio glanced over at it, nodding as he recognised the shapes; fresh food packed carefully in crates, MREs and energy bars, blankets and medical supplies. "Good," Lauren said briskly, turning away from it. "Do you want an escort out?"

"Come with us." Jayden was still holding Antonio's arm, and his fingers clenched as he spoke.

"No."

"Lauren..."

"Not yet."

Jayden was silent for a moment as he absorbed that. "You'll come?"

"We'll see." She considered for a moment before looking at Antonio. "If anything happens, come here and use the name they gave me, understand?"

"Yes," Antonio agreed, shifting just enough to bump Jayden and warn him into silence.

"Good." She glanced at the children and back at them. "Take care of them."

"Promise."

Lauren turned to look fully at Jayden.

"It's good to see you," he said softly.

"You look well." She smiled, reaching out to brush his cheek with her fingers, then she turned on her heel and vanished into the building. Two of her men took the cart, and within a minute only the children were left, watching them quietly.

Antonio smiled at them, taking a step away from Jayden to get their attention off him. "We have to walk a bit," he told them. "Does anyone need help?" No one spoke up, and he nodded. "If you get tired, or hurt yourselves, call out, ok?"

"What if the Warriors hear us?" a girl asked. "They're always around outside."

"They don't really like the dark," Antonio told her. "We'll have to be quiet and careful, but we'll be fine. Everyone find a partner and hold hands, ok?"

He glanced at Jayden, who was standing unmoving, watching him. Antonio shrugged apologetically before looking at the little girl again. "Will you be my friend's partner? He might wander off and get lost otherwise." He pulled a face and she giggled, trotting over to take Jayden's hand.

"Heads or tails?" he asked over her head.

Jayden stirred, looking at the group as though he'd forgotten they were there. "You'd better lead. We might gain company; don't react."

"Got it," Antonio said, turning to the girl shepherding the youngest child. "You stay right behind me and if you need help, tell me, ok?" She nodded, and he started back towards the Mountain, and home.


	31. Missing

Antonio didn't react when a stranger ghosted out of nowhere to walk beside him. He also didn't react when a large wolf trotted up, but that one was closer.

"She won't harm you," the stranger murmured.

"That's comforting," Antonio agreed. "Antonio."

"Merrick."

"Ranger Merrick," Antonio said in surprise. Merrick glanced at him, and Antonio added quickly, "I work with Ranger Alyssa sometimes."

"Not Ranger. Not any more." Merrick looked back along the line of children. "Jayden's sister?"

"Wouldn't come with us." Antonio didn't turn to look, though he wanted to.

One of the kids tugged on his jacket and he turned, crouching. "Are you all right?"

"Can I pet the dog?" the boy asked.

"No," Merrick said from above him.

"Better not," Antonio agreed. "Not right now, anyway." The boy pouted, and he smiled gamely. "Come on. It's not far now."

"Ranger Merrick, is he your dog?" the boy asked.

"She's not a dog," Merrick said patiently. "And no, she's not mine. She's her own."

The boy frowned, clearly not understanding, but he didn't push any further. Antonio pushed to his feet.

"Problem?" Jayden called as he caught up.

"No problem," Antonio assured him. "You two know each other?"

"We met briefly."

"We should keep moving," Merrick reminded them. Turning, he scooped the youngest child up, swinging him onto his back. He whistled sharply and the wolf bounded off ahead.

Antonio shrugged at Jayden's look. "We should keep moving. Come on. I'll be your buddy."

 

Tommy was waiting when they reached the entrance; he frowned at the procession of kids, and frowned again when Antonio came in last and shook his head. "Where's..."

"She didn't come," Antonio told him. "But she sent the kids, for us to take care of."

Tommy studied him for a moment before turning to a Silver Guardian standing nearby. "Escort the children to the infirmary, find Rangers Dana and Ryan to check them out. Ranger Wes is in Command, tell him we need a dorm and a dorm parent for tonight; we'll sort something else out tomorrow." The Guardian nodded, shepherding the children away, and Tommy turned to Merrick. "Any trouble?"

"No. Lauren never meant either of them any harm, that was clear."

"She didn't," Antonio agreed.

"She took you prisoner," Tommy reminded him.

"Out of desperation, and I'm fine. She didn't touch me, no one touched me. I think she'd have let me go pretty soon anyway even if Jayden hadn't turned up."

Tommy shook his head, turning to Jayden. "Why didn't she come back with you?"

"She didn't want to."

"Why didn't she want..."

"She has people to take care of," Antonio interrupted him, "and she didn't want to bring them all in here. As long as the children are safe. Can I please go and get some rest?"

"I thought you said they didn't hurt you."

"Nobody hurt me. I'm just tired."

"You've been bleeding," Merrick commented.

Antonio touched his head automatically. "It's nothing. It's nothing," he insisted when Jayden tried to check. "I just want to get some rest."

"Take him to the infirmary," Tommy said finally. "We can talk about this later."

"Thanks for your help, Ranger Merrick," Jayden said, one hand on Antonio's shoulder.

"Thank you," Antonio echoed, letting Jayden steer him away.


	32. Choices

Tommy walked Merrick to the dorm the Wild Force team used himself. "They don't know you're here, as far as I know," he said. Merrick nodded; he'd barely reached the Mountain before leaving again to help Jayden. "Do you know about Max?"

"I know a lot of Rangers fell."

"Max was the first."

Merrick was silent for a moment before saying "Did he fall well?"

"Protecting civilians who all survived, thanks to him."

"Good."

Tommy left him outside the door, glancing once at the wolf before going back to whatever he was doing. Merrick took a moment before tapping on the door.

Danny opened it, and it took him a moment to realise who he was looking at. "Merrick!" he said in surprise, reaching out and then drawing back, unsure. "What are...come in! Guys, it's Merrick!"

The others tumbled out of smaller rooms, exclaiming and laughing, grinning broadly. Alyssa hugged him, and Cole thumped his shoulder; the others didn't try to touch him. Wes and Eric seemed to be sharing the dorm, but after brief acknowledgements both entered their rooms and left him alone with his team.

"Are you hurt? Do you need anything?" Alyssa asked.

"I'm not hurt." Seeing her look, he added, "Could I have a drink?"

"Sure." She vanished through a door at the end of the corridor.

Cole was eying the wolf; Merrick shook his head. "I wouldn't, Cole."

"Is he friendly?" Danny asked.

"She's not _un_ friendly."

"Sounds familiar," Taylor murmured. "I met Zen Aku and the others," she said more loudly. "They said they were going to meet back up with you."

"They did," Merrick agreed shortly.

"How was Turtle Cove?"

"Empty." She raised an eyebrow and he sighed. "I had hoped to find a way onto the Animarium from there."

"We tried," Cole said neutrally.

"It's different for me. I have – had – ways you didn't, as her protector."

Alyssa came back in with a cup; Merrick took it and thanked her, and tried not to drop it when he realised Max was perched on top of a low bookcase, watching interestedly. As far as Merrick could tell, only Danny saw him; even Cole seemed completely unaware, and the wolf hadn't reacted to him at all. Danny didn't seem to have realised Merrick could see him, either.

"Did you just get here?" Alyssa asked.

"Maybe we should go sit," Taylor suggested idly.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Merrick! We have two empty rooms; you can pick one, and we'll sit in the other."

Merrick chose one of the doors at random, slinging his bag inside without bothering to look at it, and they settled in the other. There was only one chair, and by unspoken agreement Merrick was given it; the others made themselves comfortable on the bed or the floor.

Merrick told them, briefly, about the mission down to the town; he'd arrived at the Mountain the first time just as Jayden was invoking his Ranger authority to prevent Tommy sending anyone else along. Merrick's inclusion had satisfied both of them, as he could still travel completely unseen when he wanted to, and he could fight better than almost anyone.

"What's it like outside?" Danny asked when he'd finished.

Merrick shrugged, eyes distant. "People are surviving. Surprisingly well, in some places. Extremely poorly in others. The only positive thing about this is that violence is no longer allowed, so there's no banditry, no stealing. In some places, that has made people extraordinarily kind. In some, unbelievably cruel."

"People are people, I suppose," Cole said sadly. "Are you staying?"

"For now. Zen Aku has been in contact with Jindrax and Toxica..."

"Are they human too?" Danny asked eagerly.

"Yes. I didn't meet them, I was in Turtle Cove at the time. They are attempting to set up..." He hesitated, looking at Alyssa. "Underground train?"

"Underground railway," she corrected him quickly. "To bring people here?"

"Those who need it. Children, mostly, I believe. It will be easier for them if I'm here." Noting Taylor's look, he continued, "This place is open to everyone."

"Yes," Taylor agreed. "If we get a lot of new people, though, Tommy'll probably shift some of them out to the Academies. This is a military base."

"This is a colony," Merrick corrected her.

"No need to fight over something that hasn't happened yet," Cole told them. "Merrick, you must be tired. Do you want to eat something before you get some rest?"

"No. Thank you. Danny, could I speak to you for a minute?"

Danny jumped, blinking. "Uh, sure."

The others left them alone, with murmured 'good to see you's and 'call if you need anything' from Alyssa. Merrick nodded, waiting patiently until they were gone. Danny had risen to his feet and now stood, fidgeting slightly. "Is something wrong, Merrick?"

"No," Merrick assured him. "I only wanted..."

He hesitated, studying Danny for a moment, before shaking his head. "I wondered if you grew any berries. She will eat some."

"Oh!" Danny grinned; across the room, Max was rolling his eyes. "We grow strawberries."

"That's perfect. It will mean she'll need less meat."

"I'll make sure she gets some." Danny grinned, letting himself out.

"Didn't tell him," Max observed.

"Didn't need to," Merrick answered. "If you really are Max, you don't mean any harm. If you're not..." He waved a hand through Max's midsection. "You can't do much harm."

"What do you think I am?" he asked curiously.

"It doesn't matter."

"It might." Max bounced to his feet, crossing to the door. "You can see me, after all."

Something moved in Merrick's peripheral, and he glanced at it without meaning to. Nothing was there, and when he looked back Max was gone.


	33. Save the Day

Jayden was mostly silent as they waited in the infirmary, as Trent pronounced Antonio healthy and advised food and rest, and as they headed back towards their dorm. Antonio put up with it until they were almost home; then he hustled Jayden into an unused room and leaned against the door, folding his arms. "Out with it."

"Out with what?" Jayden was deliberately avoiding his eyes.

"How'd you get Ranger Tommy to let you go down there on our own? There's no way he'd agree to that."

"He didn't have a choice." 

"Why not, Jay?"

Jayden looked up, finally. "Because I'm a Ranger. And one of my team was in danger. Tommy Oliver couldn't stop me doing what I needed to."

"Oh, Jayden, I'm sorry," Antonio murmured.

Jayden shrugged. "It was about time, anyway."

"You didn't want..."

"I knew I'd have to." He leaned against the wall, eyes distant. "I knew I'd have to eventually."

"I'm sorry it was for me."

Jayden refocused, smiling faintly. "Who else would I have done it for?"

"Trust you to find a way to save the day."

"Well, I'm a Ranger, apparently. And Rangers don't give up."

"No," Antonio agreed with a laugh. "They don't."

Someone tapped on the door; Antonio glanced at Jayden for permission before opening it. "Hey, Ziggy," he said in surprise.

"Oh, good, you are back. There's all kinds of rumours going around. Someone said you'd been killed out on a mission."

"I wasn't killed out on a mission," Antonio assured him. "Have you met Jayden? Ranger Jayden, Ziggy, he works with the children."

"Just Jayden," Jayden said with a glare at Antonio.

"I thought you weren't a Ranger," Ziggy said at the same time.

"It's complicated. It's nice to meet you. How's Cody? I ran off on him earlier. Did he make it to the end of the day?"

"I thought he was a bit quiet," Ziggy murmured. "He made it. Sole surviving human in a base full of zombies who could work together. He won't tell anyone how he did it, either."

"I'll talk to him," Jayden promised. "The point was to find hiding places that work, right?"

Ziggy waved it off. "Let him bask a bit. He's a good kid. And act surprised when he tells you."

"I will," Jayden promised.

Ziggy turned to Antonio. "I have two teens who are agitating to get outside. They're just upsetting everyone else in the class, and Billy can't do anything with them. Can I put them on your team for a couple days? It might wear the fidgets out of them."

"Clear it with Ranger Trini, and I don't mind," Antonio agreed. "As long as they understand that out there, what I say goes, no matter what."

"I'll make sure they understand," Ziggy promised. "I'm glad you're back, Antonio."

"Me too. I'm going out tomorrow, so make sure they know where to be and when, or they're getting left behind."

"Got it. Nice to meet you, Ranger Jayden."

"Just Jayden," he said again, but Ziggy was already gone. "Did you have to do that?" he demanded of Antonio.

"Yes," Antonio said firmly. "Because you won't, and if you want Ranger Tommy to take you seriously, you have to be a Ranger."

"I don't feel much like a Ranger today. A Ranger would have been able to persuade Lauren to come with us. I couldn't even talk to her."

"You couldn't persuade her of anything, Jayden. Lauren had made up her mind well before you got there. She feels responsible for her people, and she doesn't think bringing them here is the best thing to do."

"I miss her." Jayden pressed one hand to his face, standing very still. "I didn't think I could miss her more than I did as a child, but this is so much worse."

"I know," Antonio murmured. He didn't touch him. "I'm sorry."

 

It was late when they got back to the dorm. Jayden looked in on a sleeping Cody while Antonio gave Mia the highlights; she didn't ask Jayden about it when he joined them, only smiled. "I hear we're Rangers now."

"No," Jayden said absently. "I'm going to tell Ranger Tommy I don't want the title. I'll take whatever responsibilities he wants to give me, now, but I'm not going to be called Ranger."

"Jayden, why not?" Antonio protested. "You worked just as hard as any of them. Harder."

"So did you," Jayden pointed out. "But they won't call you Ranger because you're not a descendant. I'm not going to take a title you have every right to and won't be given. I'm sorry, Mia."

"No, you're right," she said quickly. "I hadn't thought about that. Of course Antonio should get it."

"Jayden, don't be an idiot," Antonio protested. "I don't care."

"I care. Mia and I worked for this because our grandfathers promised we would. You did it because you chose to. I won't let them give me a title and not you, and they can't give you one because there wasn't a place on the team for you, not one that they'd recognise."

"I don't care," Antonio said again. "I really don't. It was never about that. I just wanted to stand at your side."

"I know you don't," Jayden agreed. "It's important to me. I'll talk to Ranger Tommy tomorrow."

Mia stood, reaching up to hold Jayden's face gently. She tugged until he leaned over; then she planted a kiss in the centre of his forehead. "You're a good man," she told him, letting go and backing away. "And I agree with you. I won't take a title Antonio can't have."

"You're being stupid," Antonio said, frustrated. "Nose, face, guys? Come on. It doesn't matter to me, and it'll make a difference to them."

"If something like that makes a difference to them, then maybe Lauren has the right idea," Jayden told him. "No, Antonio, it's decided. I'll talk to Ranger Tommy in the morning. You're supposed to be resting; come on."


	34. Uh Oh!

"Spencer, is Tommy in?"

"No," Spencer said without looking up.

"Spencer, his door's open. I can see him. He's sitting right there."

"Have you seen Ranger Dana about these hallucinations you seem to be having?"

"He's right there!"

Spencer sighed, finally looking up. "Ranger TJ, I can't vouch for what you may or may not be seeing. My information is that Ranger Tommy is not in right now, thus no one is allowed in."

"Give up," Wes advised as he passed by. "Spencer won't."

TJ made a face, dropping a file onto Spencer's desk. "Then I guess you'd better deal with this."

"What is it?" Spencer opened the file, scanning through it. "Ah. I believe he may have returned. Allow me to check." He leaned back in his seat to look through Tommy's door. "Yes, he's back."

"Thanks, Spencer," TJ said with a grin, tapping on the frame and stepping inside. Spencer was on his heels, file in hand.

Tommy glanced up. "Hey, TJ."

"Tommy. I'm sorry, but you need to see this one."

"What is it?" Tommy took the file, flicking through it.

"I don't think they meant to do any harm," TJ offered. "I mean, they didn't go looking for something to smash."

"That doesn't really matter."

"You don't think intent matters?"

"Not when the results are like this. Spencer, can you find Hunter, please?"

"Certainly," Spencer agreed, stepping back out into the main room.

"Tommy," TJ protested.

"We can't afford to allow this, TJ. We're only one disaster away from starving as it is. This is really going to hurt us."

"They're kids! And they're bored and frustrated."

"We were kids."

TJ hesitated, studying him. "You can't measure them against us. We had – circumstances."

"Everyone has a story, TJ. We can't afford to make exceptions. If we don't make an example here – it's a slippery slope."

Spencer stepped back in. "Ranger Hunter is on his way. Ranger Jayden is outside with Antonio, he wants to talk to you."

"He'll have to wait, I'm sorry," Tommy told him. "You were in the Navy, Spencer. Can we afford to let this go?"

"Not go, sir, no. But there are degrees in dealing with things like this."

"Maybe. I think we need to shut this down."

"Tommy," TJ started.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, TJ. I'll deal with it."

TJ scowled, turning on his heel and striding out. Spencer watched him go, eyes narrowed.

Hunter appeared a minute later, glancing over his shoulder with a frown. "What's got his panties in..."

"Ranger Hunter," Spencer said loudly. "Ranger Tommy's waiting for you."

Hunter caught himself, nodding briskly to Spencer. "Thank you."

"Hunter, we've had some trouble." Tommy tossed him the file.

Hunter skimmed it, frowning. "Hydroponics."

"Two teenage boys broke in last night looking for something. When they didn't find it, they smashed up the fittings and destroyed the plants."

"Why?" Hunter asked blankly. "They gotta eat too."

"Upset, angry at someone, on a dare, who knows. Danny's still assessing, but we're going to be in trouble."

"Ok," Hunter agreed uncertainly. "I'm not much help in hydroponics."

"No, that's not why you're here."

"Ranger Tommy wishes to punish the two boys," Spencer filled in when Tommy didn't go on.

"I can run 'em in circles, I guess," Hunter suggested.

Tommy shook his head. "I want them out of here. Can you escort them to the Academy?"

"You want me to unload them onto Sensei?"

"He managed your team."

"Hey," Hunter protested.

Tommy waved it off. "He can put them to work; they'll have to work harder out there, there's no choice. When can you go?"

"I need to talk to Tori, and I can't go on my own."

"Take Ranger Jayden. He's looking for something to do."

"I don't believe he is, sir," Spencer said.

"Doesn't matter, he's going now. Take Antonio, as well. Is that enough?"

"Not sure, but I'll get it sorted. Where are the kids now?"

"Silver Guardians have them in their dorm. Spencer's got the details. Take whoever you need. I want them out of here."

Hunter hesitated; Spencer caught his eye, shaking his head slightly, and Hunter gave in. "Sure. I'll talk to Jayden and let Spencer know what we're doing."

"That's fine, thanks." Tommy was already eyeing the next file on his desk.

Spencer ushered Hunter out, pulling the door closed behind him. "Best not to argue right now."

"He wants to banish two kids," Hunter pointed out. "And he needn't think I'm forgetting that crack about my team, either."

Spencer didn't reply, just turned to Jayden and Antonio. "You are both to accompany Ranger Hunter on his mission and render him any aid you can. This is directly from Ranger Tommy."

"I need to speak with him," Jayden said quickly.

"It'll have to wait, I'm afraid. He isn't seeing anyone now, and you have a mission."

"It doesn't matter," Antonio assured them. "What's the mission?"

Hunter stirred. "Escort mission to the ninja academy. It's about two days from here, longer if we travel by night. I have to talk to Tori and sort out supplies, so I'll meet you in about half an hour. Antonio, do something for me?"

 

Antonio tried knocking on the door frame, but no one was paying any attention. He picked his way in, trying not to stand on anything that looked fragile; Jayden hung back, watching the chaos with a frown.

"Excuse me, Ranger Xander, where's Ranger Danny?" Antonio asked, catching at Xander's armload of pipes as they threatened to slip.

"He's in the Ebb and Flow room, I think. I lost track a while ago." Xander adjusted his grip. "Thanks. Come to help?"

Antonio shook his head. "I've got to go do something for Ranger Tommy, but I need to speak to Ranger Danny first."

"Well, try there, and if he isn't there Justin might know. And don't call him Ranger Danny, he doesn't like it down here."

Antonio thanked him, collected Jayden and headed for the Ebb and Flow room. Danny was there, talking at Merrick as they sorted through damaged parts and destroyed plants.

"Ra – Danny?"

"Yeah?" Danny looked up, nodding at Jayden. "Have you come to help?"

"No, I'm sorry. Ranger Hunter sent us to say we're going out to the ninja academy on an escort mission, and are there any seeds or seedlings we can bring back to help you?"

Merrick rose to his feet, watching them. "Who are you escorting?"

Antonio shook his head, but Jayden offered, "The boys who did this."

Merrick raised an eyebrow, but he didn't comment. Danny didn't seem to be paying attention, surveying the room and shaking his head.

"I'll go with you," he said finally, turning to Antonio. "I know how to handle plants like we need. Not that you don't," he added quickly.

"I'll fetch the wolf and meet you," Merrick offered. Danny blinked, and he shrugged. "She needs to stretch her legs every so often, and you might need another set of hands."

"Sure, if you want. Does Hunter need a list, Antonio?"

"Yes, he said he'd send it ahead on the radio so they could be getting ready for us."

"Good, good. I'll go to the Dispatch Center myself and meet you all in a few minutes."

He brushed past, muttering to himself. Jayden stepped out of his path, turning to Merrick. "You should probably bring some supplies. It's going to be a few days, from what Hunter said."

"Thank you. Where are we meeting?"


	35. Storm

"He lives outside."

"I didn't know that, did I?"

"He was out there for ages before he got here."

"Antonio..."

" 'Bring your supplies, Merrick!' As if he couldn't live off whatever's growing around and whatever his wolf catches..."

"She's not his, and also, shut up."

Antonio grinned, leaning against the corridor wall. "I'm just saying."

"You've been _just saying_ since we left the arboretum. I should have brought Cody along to say goodbye, maybe you'd have stopped then." Cody had been disappointed to hear they'd be gone for so long, but several people had promised to keep an eye on him.

Antonio shrugged. "Could have brought him with us, this group's getting bigger all the time."

Ziggy appeared around a corner, hurrying towards them without seeming to recognise them for a moment. "Oh, Tony, hey."

"Antonio."

"What did I say?"

Antonio grinned, shaking his head. "What's up?"

"Oh, I'm coming with you."

"You're what?"

"Well, I have this friend out at the academy, and since you're going anyway I'm going to come along and see him, and then I can help Ranger Danny bring back his plants."

"The Dispatch Center'll pass messages." Antonio caught one of Ziggy's sleeves as he tried to struggle into his coat.

"Oh, I wouldn't use official time for this, it's not anything that important. I'd just like to see him, since you're going."

Hunter arrived, shouldering a backpack and herding two sullen teenagers. "Is this us?"

"No, Rangers Danny and Merrick are both coming," Antonio told him. "Ranger Danny said it would be easiest, he could make sure we handled the seedlings properly."

Hunter nodded vaguely. "We can drop the 'Ranger' on this trip, I think."

"Sounds good," Jayden said quickly. Antonio pouted at him and Jayden smiled, reaching out to squeeze his hand briefly.

Ziggy leaned out of the entrance, making a face. "It's raining."

"Good," Hunter said briskly.

Ziggy pulled his head back in; he was drenched, hair dripping down his back. "It's _really_ raining."

"A storm won't hurt us, and it'll make it harder for the Warriors to follow us," Hunter told him. "We'll all dry. And you don't have to come." One of the boys started to speak, and Hunter said sharply "You have to come."

Antonio glanced down the corridor. "There's coats in the fishing cupboard, I could run."

"Run, then," Hunter agreed.

Danny and Merrick were there by the time Antonio got back, arms full of coats. Merrick quietly refused, and they didn't have one big enough for Danny; Hunter's was slightly tight on him. The others accepted them gratefully.

Hunter glanced at Merrick. "Where's your wolf?"

"She's not mine. She went on ahead. She'll catch up to us."

He nodded, glancing at the two teenagers. "After you, then."


	36. Rain

It was late afternoon when they left. Between them, Hunter and Merrick kept them going until shortly before dawn.

Antonio was practically in Jayden's lap, he was so close, huddled up tight. Ziggy was on his other side but further away.

"You're a fisherman," Jayden pointed out. "You have to be used to being rained on."

"Used to it doesn't mean I like it," Antonio muttered. "I tolerate it."

"Apart from today."

"I don't have to tolerate it today, I have a Jayden-sized windbreak today."

Ziggy cleared his throat. "Should I find another bush, or..."

"You're fine," Antonio said without moving.

"Sure? I don't mind finding somewhere else."

"You're fine," he said again.

"Quiet down," Hunter said from somewhere just out of sight through the shifting rain. "We don't want to draw the Warriors."

"Yeah, Jayden, quiet down," Antonio said softly. Jayden huffed, but he didn't make any attempt to pull away, settling in to rest.

None of them slept much, and by evening when Hunter roused them they were all snappy and short tempered. One of the boys snuck away and slunk back a little later, mud splattered head to toe and limping. No one commented on it, but Hunter split his escorts to effectively surround the boys from then on.

He'd hoped to reach the academy by dark, but they were forced to camp again that night. Danny and Merrick simply accepted it; Antonio complained for the sake of complaining, and Jayden agreed absently without making any other trouble. Ziggy was growing quieter the closer they got to the academy. The teens were jumpy, and Hunter took them aside and talked quietly to them for a few minutes, trying to calm them down.

Merrick's wolf arrived during the evening, settling down to watch them all. Ziggy was clearly unnerved by her, huddling closer to Antonio and Jayden. Merrick, who should have been on watch, promptly closed his eyes and left her on guard.

The rain picked up during the night, driven on a fierce wind. Hunter woke everyone shortly after midnight, getting them moving again. "We can't stay out in this," he said when the teens complained. "We need to get to the academy before we freeze. Come on."

"I can't see anything," one of the boys complained.

"I can have the wolf guide you," Merrick offered mildly.

He flushed, taking a step away. "Never mind. I'll manage."

"As you wish."

Jayden quietly put Ziggy between himself and Antonio. He'd spent years training in all kinds of weather, and Antonio was used to rain; Ziggy seemed completely lost, unsure how to carry himself to minimise the rain's effects. Between them, Jayden and Antonio kept the worst from him.

Hunter thought they were almost at the academy bounds when Danny suddenly skidded, landing hard. Merrick crouched to speak to him, absently drawing the wolf in closer; then he stood and turned to Hunter. "Twisted ankle."

Hunter grimaced, glancing around for landmarks. "We're close to the old boundaries. Someone there would be able to help. How should – Jayden, you three stay and make Danny as comfortable as you can. Merrick and I will go on and bring back help, all right? We won't be long."

Jayden nodded, kneeling beside Danny. "We'll be fine."

Merrick glanced at the wolf, who was settled quite comfortably against Danny's side. "She'll stay, too. She might be a help."

"She's already helping," Danny assured him, teeth chattering. "She's very warm."

Ziggy immediately dropped down on Danny's other side, grinning. "I'm not as good as her, but maybe I can still help," he suggested, shifting to try and block as much rain as possible.

Hunter touched Jayden's shoulder and he glanced up from a discussion with Antonio. "We're fine. Go ahead."

"I won't be long," he said again.

"We're fine," Jayden repeated patiently. He was tearing a spare top into strips, and Antonio was busy rooting through one of the bags for something for Danny to eat. "Go. The faster you go, the sooner you're back."

"Just don't fall over," Ziggy added, draping his raincoat over Danny's shoulders and back.

Hunter grinned despite himself, turning to the two boys. "If you two..."

"No need," one interrupted him. "This is serious. No messing around."

He nodded, setting off at a jog. Briefly he mourned the loss of the ninja streak; then he focused on the half-forgotten landmarks. He'd rarely come at the academy from this side.

It was further than he'd thought, but eventually Kapri, wet and bedraggled, appeared through the rain. "We thought you'd keep going," she said briefly.

Hunter nodded, waving the two boys forward. "Kapri, Danny's hurt his ankle. He's back there with a couple of others. We need help to bring him in."

Kapri nodded, frowning. "How far out?"

"Mile and a half," Merrick said before Hunter could answer. "Give or take," he added at her look.

"We'll have to be very careful. We've picked up Warriors on the move. Let me get the boys inside and find what we need, and then we'll go."


	37. Sidekick

Jayden finished wrapping Danny's ankle, lowering it carefully. "How does that feel? I couldn't see very well."

"Sis good." Danny smiled at him.

He was still shivering, but there wasn't much they could do about that. Jayden, Antonio and Ziggy had all donated their jackets, and the wolf was still leaning against Danny's side.

Ziggy finished his share of the energy bar, looking around. "I think it's getting brighter."

"The rain's starting to ease off," Jayden agreed. Hopefully it'd help Danny a little, and it would make it easier for Hunter's ninjas to find them. Hopefully that wouldn't take too much longer.

Antonio caught his eye, taking a couple of steps away. Jayden followed him, glancing back to see Ziggy immediately start talking.

"It's taking too long," Antonio murmured.

"I know," Jayden agreed.

"Danny's not shivering as much."

Jayden glanced back, biting his lip. "I don't think – should we move him? What if that makes it worse?"

"What if it saves his life?" Antonio retorted. "The wolf can show us which way they went, and if we don't go pretty soon I don't think he'll be able to."

Jayden shook his head, trying to think. "Antonio..."

"You have to decide," Antonio said quietly. "You're in charge here."

He nodded, well aware that Antonio was completely serious. "Let's go, then." Antonio nodded, going to talk quietly to Ziggy and Danny; Jayden knelt beside the wolf, waiting until she looked at him. "Can you show us where they went, please?"

The wolf rose to her feet, shaking out her coat, and trotted away. Jayden went to help Antonio get Danny on his feet; he was taller than Antonio and both were shorter than Danny, but he was closer to Antonio's height than Ziggy. Jayden was careful to put himself on Danny's injured side, to make it easier for him to keep his weight off it.

Ziggy walked ahead of them, keeping an eye on the wolf and warning them about dips or hollows or tree branches in their way. The rain was letting up, so even though it was still night, it was a little easier to see. Danny wasn't talking much, but he answered direct questions. As long as he was answering, Jayden was satisfied.

Antonio stopped suddenly, almost knocking them down until Jayden caught his balance. "Antonio -!”

"Shhh," Antonio said urgently, head tilted as he listened.

Jayden blinked, trying to hear whatever he was hearing. "What is..."

"Down," Antonio said, reaching out to snag Ziggy's top. "Down, down down!" He sank to the ground, forcing Jayden to follow to keep Danny from simply pitching over.

"What's..."

Antonio freed one hand, clapping it over Ziggy's mouth. His eyes widened, but he didn't try to pull away, and a moment later Jayden heard it; the _thump_ of a Warrior's footsteps.

Danny slowly lowered his head, biting his lip. Antonio wasn't moving, one hand still pressed over Ziggy's mouth, but he was breathing words Jayden couldn't make out. Ziggy was utterly still. The Warrior stomped closer, and for a moment Jayden thought it would pass them by. Instead, it stopped, close enough that it had to see them.

Antonio let go of Ziggy, rolling over and rising to his knees. "No violence," he said clearly. "No weapons. We're not a threat. You can keep going."

Jayden didn't dare move, afraid of derailing whatever Antonio was doing. His heart was beating so loudly he was sure they could hear it.

"No weapons," Antonio said again.

The Warrior stirred. "You above all need no weapons to be a threat."

Jayden froze; he could hear Ziggy breathing curses. The Warriors never spoke. Everyone knew that.

"No threat," Antonio said patiently.

There was a pause before the Warrior said, "She will judge you before the end."

"She can't do that if you kill me." More sharply, he added, "No, not them either."

Jayden couldn't move. He didn't dare; Danny was leaning on him too heavily. But Ziggy was watching Antonio.

The Warrior made a noise that might have been a laugh, and then turned to walk away. No one moved, not for several minutes after the sounds had faded away; not until Antonio suddenly scrambled around the group to pull Jayden into a desperate hug.

"Dear gods, that was terrifying," he said, shaking. Jayden wrapped his free arm around him, holding on tightly. "I was sure he was going to kill us all."

"What were you talking about?" Ziggy asked, eyes wide.

"No idea. Anything I could think of. What was I saying?"

Jayden shook his head, loosening his grip on Antonio without actually letting go. "It doesn't matter. We need to go before that happens again. Can you stand?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, Danny," he added belatedly. "I should have been more gentle getting you down here."

"Hey, I'm not arguing with the results," Danny assured him, smiling weakly.

"Someone's coming," Ziggy said suddenly, turning to look. The wolf bounded away and a moment later Ziggy added, "Never mind, it's Hunter and Merrick."

They'd brought help. Jayden and Antonio were quietly shuffled away to let them work. Merrick looked at them oddly, but he didn't try and talk to them, just helped the strangers who were working over Danny.

"That was stupid," Jayden said quietly.

"My hands are shaking," Antonio told him, sounding surprised. Lifting one up, he eyed it. "Look at that."

"You were stupid," Jayden said again.

"No, I wasn't. I know how this goes, Jayden; I'm the sidekick and you're the hero. The sidekick protects the hero. That's how it goes."

"You're not the sidekick." Jayden leaned in, pressing their foreheads together. "Please don't do that again," he breathed. "I need you here."

"I'm not planning on it," Antonio promised. "Probably won't work again anyway, I don't know why it did this time."

"I'm glad it did," Ziggy said, coming to join them. Jayden drew back away from Antonio, sitting on his heels. "That weird ninja girl says Danny's going to be fine," he added. "We're ready to head to the academy whenever you are."

"Did you tell them what happened?" Jayden asked, rising to his feet and holding out a hand for Antonio.

"Didn't really seem the time. Why?" He glanced from Jayden to Antonio and back, eyes narrowed. "You want it kept quiet? I don't know that Danny will do that. He's not much for staying quiet about things like this. He doesn't hide things."

"Not kept quiet," Jayden said carefully. "Just – kept to as few people as possible."

"Well, I haven't told anyone yet. I think Merrick knows something went down, though. Of course, we were all sitting on the ground and Antonio was trying to crawl inside your skin, so..."

"Ziggy," Antonio said patiently, "you remember how we've talked about your thoughts, and that not all of them need to be shared out loud?"

Ziggy grinned, hurrying to catch up with Hunter and one of the guys who'd come with him. Jayden shook his head, following them, aware of Merrick a few steps behind them. "I wonder if that's his friend."

"Maybe. He didn't say how he knows him. Funny he's not out here with him; Ziggy doesn't really have friends at the Mountain. Just me and the other teachers."

"Maybe he likes the Mountain better."

"Maybe."

"Maybe he likes you better."

Antonio hit him.


	38. Sun

Merrick was sitting in the yard when Jayden stepped out of the tiny guest hut they'd been given. "Good morning."

"Morning." He stretched, looking up. "Nice morning, considering yesterday."

"Very," Merrick agreed. He was sitting with his back to the sun, but he could feel the warmth of it on his back.

"How's Danny?"

"He's doing well. He won't be able to travel any kind of distance today, but they think maybe tomorrow, depending on how well he does today."

"I'm glad he's doing well. I was worried there for a while."

"You did well getting him moving."

"Hmm."

Merrick looked past Jayden; Max was sitting on the railing by the hut, grinning at him. Jayden frowned, turning to follow his gaze, and looked back. "Something wrong?"

"I thought I saw someone. But it was only a shadow." He kept his voice even; Max only grinned wider, swinging his feet.

Jayden looked around. "Is there something helpful we should be doing?"

"Not yet. Breakfast will come around soon, and then there'll be work to do. The others are still sleeping?"

"Yeah. Antonio might be faking, he doesn't really like getting up early."

"He fishes for a living."

"I know, that's why he doesn't like getting up when he doesn't have to." Jayden sank into _seiza_ beside Merrick, drawing a breath and closing his eyes.

Merrick watched him for a moment before looking away. "Something happened when we were gone last night."

"Yes," Jayden agreed.

"Something important."

"Something Ranger Tommy is going to want to know about." He opened his eyes, watching Merrick. "A Warrior came by. Antonio tried to talk it down, and it answered him."

Merrick considered carefully. "It spoke to him."

"Yes. Antonio tried to convince it we weren't a threat; the Warrior said he didn't need weapons to be a threat, and that 'She' would judge him. And then it left."

"Antonio doesn't need weapons to be a threat," he repeated thoughtfully.

"I don't know what it meant. Antonio says he doesn't know either, and I believe him. All I know is the Warrior spoke to him."

"Tommy will want to know that," Merrick murmured. Catching Jayden's look, he added, "It'll keep until we get back. Don't worry about it until then."

Jayden nodded, closing his eyes again. "You've been traveling, Ranger Merrick. What's the world like?"

"Merrick."

"Mmm."

Merrick quietly described some of the communities he'd passed through and by. Some had returned to farming and animal husbandry; some were surviving on the remains of the old world, foraging supplies. Some, like the Mountain, were using a mix of both methods. Some had welcomed him and his companions, some had shunned them. One group had tried to chase them off, but with no violence allowed they hadn't had much luck.

"Can I ask you something?" Jayden asked when he stopped talking.

"You may ask."

"I've been outside helping Antonio's group with the fishing. And I've been down in the hydroponics, helping there. Antonio said we could grow more in the hydroponics, but it didn't look like that to me; it looks like there's more growing outside."

"There are more plants outside," Merrick pointed out.

Jayden shook his head. "Even allowing for that. Have you noticed anything like that?"

Merrick thought about it, comparing what he'd been seeing recently with vague memories from before his three thousand year sleep. He hadn't paid much attention to what was being grown; growing up at court didn't leave much time to be interested in farming and foraging.

"I haven't noticed," he said slowly, "but groups that have gone back to farming are feeding themselves more easily than groups who are foraging."

Jayden nodded slowly. "Something else to think about."

"You think it's connected?"

"Maybe."

Ziggy wandered out of the hut, rubbing one eye. He sank down to sit cross legged beside them. "How do you sit like that, man? I tried that once and my foot just about fell off."

Jayden smiled. "Practise."

"Why?"

"I was raised a Samurai. There are traditions involved."

"Ah. That's ok, then. Traditions never really make much sense."

Jayden lowered his head, smiling. "How's your friend?"

"Doing well here. I'm glad, I was worried about him. He got smacked in the head during one of the attacks, lost his memory. That's why he's here instead of the Mountain. He wasn't well enough to travel when I left. But he likes it here now."

"I'm glad," Jayden said when he could get a word in. "Hey, is Antonio awake yet?"

"He wasn't when I got up, want me to go check?"

"If you don't mind. Breakfast soon."

"I like him," Merrick murmured. He frowned as Ziggy disappeared back into the hut; it was hard to be sure from here, but he thought Ziggy had side stepped Max.

"He used to be a conman, apparently," Jayden told him. "He talks fast enough for it. A good man, though, I think."

"Yes. I think so."


	39. Light

The darkness woke Dana. For a moment she wasn't sure she'd actually opened her eyes; the darkness pressed against her, almost tangible, completely impenetrable.

"Dana?" Kelsey whispered from somewhere nearby, and Dana relaxed slightly.

"Yeah, I'm here. Something must have blown out. Don't try to move, you might run into a wall."

"I can't believe how dark it is." Kelsey laughed nervously. "You don't think we should try and find our way out?"

"Not yet, no."

"Dana, if there's no lights, the air can't be working either."

"The air's on a different circuit. We're fine right now. Just stay calm, ok? We're fine."

Someone tapped at the door and it slid open. Dana threw up a hand against the light streaming in, wincing. "Who's there?"

"Just me," Joel told them. "Sorry, didn't think about the light."

"Are they out all over?" Kelsey asked.

"More or less. Something major blew. The techs are tracking it down. Dana, I'm sitting on your bed. Don't open your eyes yet."

She did anyway, squinting against the green light. "Glow sticks?"

"Easier to carry than the solars, leaves the hands free." He snapped a stick, shaking it briskly before looping the string over her head. "Arm out, please."

"Excuse me?"

"Will you just put your arm out?"

Dana obeyed and he stuck a second, thinner stick to it, attaching it with medical tape. "There. You won't be reading any books, but you'll be able to see what you're doing, kind of. Kelsey, I'm coming your way."

Dana studied the glow stick, frowning. "This is pink."

"Yep."

"Yours is green."

"Yep." He snapped Kelsey's. "And this one's yellow. Seeing the pattern?"

"You can't possibly have enough colours for everyone. And what about the civilians?"

"Sixths are all getting purple, and there's already been grumbling, so don't bother. Allies are orange, civilians are getting two different colours, because we really don't have any other colours. Kelsey, arm out."

He finished attaching her glow sticks and gave them both packets of sticks and tape. "Here, anoint anyone you come across. Dana, you should probably head for the infirmary, we've had a lot of people running into walls and stuff. Kels, we're going on civilian rescue. Most of them should be off shift, but we need to be sure no one's trapped anywhere. Anyone who doesn't have to be anywhere else is supposed to head to the gym, so they're all together if we need to find them."

Dana hugged them both. "Be careful, you two."

"We're inside the Mountain," Kelsey pointed out. "What could happen?"

"Don't jinx us," Joel warned her. "Let's go."

Trent was already in the infirmary, and Dana was glad to see that someone had distributed several of the solar lanterns and battery powered lights around the room. None of the injuries were major, but they were numerous, and she'd been working for a while before she realised that Ryan hadn't shown up.

"He was helping get civilians out of their rooms," Trent offered when she commented on it. "He sent me here. I thought he'd be coming."

Dana frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Trent, I need to go for a few minutes. Not about Ryan, something else. I won't be long." Glancing around, she picked out two uninjured men who'd accompanied friends and told them, "Help Ranger Trent with whatever he needs."

Joel had said civilians were being gathered in the gym. There were several gyms, once each on most of the public levels. Unsure of which one to try, Dana hedged her bets and went straight to the one the kids usually used for classes. It took her longer to get there than she'd expected; the stairs were surprisingly hard to navigate in the near-darkness.

The noise level rose as she neared the gym, and when she opened the door she had to stop for a moment. The scene was bizarre, almost like a rave, everything lit with neon glow sticks, people swarming around trying to find friends and family.

She glanced around, finally finding a Silver Guardian near the door. "You're checking people in?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am! Are you looking for someone?"

"Mia Watanabe, or Cody...I don't know his surname, he might be under Watanabe or Shiba."

"I know the kid," the Guardian agreed, flicking through papers. He'd been given a lantern, too, though it wasn't much use in the crowded room. "I have Ranger Mia, but no Cody, I'm afraid."

"I need her."

He shrugged helplessly. "Her glow stick's pink."

It wasn't much help. These were civilians, which meant a lot of them had one pink glow stick anyway, and Dana kept going for the wrong people. A lot of people knew Mia, though, and they all started looking as soon as they realised Dana wanted her. Eventually Mia found her, and they retreated to a corner where they could speak without yelling at each other.

"Cody went to Bridge's this evening," Mia told her. "He doesn't much like the dorm when Jayden's not there. That's on Jungle level, he's probably somewhere there. Wouldn't want to leave the kids. What do you need him for?"

"Not just him, all the kids. Ziggy had them playing that zombie game, and I'm sure at one point they weren't allowed light. We can put them with the search teams. Who knows where people were when the lights went out. It can't hurt to have them help. Do you recognise any of those kids here?"

Mia looked across the crowd, eyes narrowed. "Some of them, yeah."

"Ok. Start gathering them up, and I'll talk to the Guardian."

The Guardians' radios were still working, and Wes agreed it could help once she got hold of him. "Voluntary for the kids, though."

"Of course," Dana agreed. "And they only do it for an hour or so and then we bring them back. It might help, Wes, they went all over the base for that game."

"Ziggy was smarter than we thought. I'll start giving the orders from here. Where are you?"

"Storm level gym. I'll get things started from here."

The Guardian obligingly whistled for everyone's attention, and Dana explained the plan. "This is completely voluntary," she told the crowd. "But the simple fact is the children roamed all over this base, in conditions not too different from what we have now. They may have a better idea where the hidey holes are than any of us."

"I'll help," a child called from somewhere in the crowd, and another agreed, and then more. They started coming forward, most of them with parents, and Dana turned back to the Guardian. 

"The search teams are going to start coming by here. Make sure you keep very good track of who's joining what team, when. Let the parents go with them if they want, and every child searches for no more than an hour, understand?"

"Understood, Ranger Dana."

"Good."

Mia was at her elbow when she turned. "Can you use a hand in the infirmary? I wanted to offer, but the Guardian just kept saying everyone should stay here."

"I can definitely use a hand. Thanks."


	40. Fight!

Merrick ended up helping to repair a fence on one side of the academy grounds. It was time consuming work, but undemanding. He'd been paired with Dillon, Ziggy's friend, and Ziggy came along with them, chattering away and helping to hold and carry things.

Merrick watched them interact curiously; it wasn't like any relationship he knew. Dillon seemed, at best, to tolerate Ziggy, and to Merrick himself he was brisk almost to the point of rudeness. Ziggy seemed to expect that, though, and just kept chattering even when Dillon cut him off; several times Merrick caught Dillon looking almost fond, when Ziggy wasn't watching him.

Around lunchtime a dark haired girl came out to meet them. Merrick didn't realise she was blind until she'd actually reached them; she was completely confident crossing the field. "Ranger Merrick?"

"Yes." He'd given up on correcting people; they were all determined to use his title, even though they had no Rangers here usually.

"Sensei Kanoi was wondering if you'd take lunch with him. He'd like to speak to you."

"Of course." Merrick glanced at the work, estimating it by eye. "We'll be finished here in about twenty minutes."

"I'll tell him to expect you in about thirty, then, to give you a chance to clean up."

"Thanks."

She smiled, tilting her head slightly. "Ziggy, you're not talking my brother's ear off, are you?"

"Me?" Ziggy said innocently. "You know me better than that."

"I do know you, that's why I asked," she agreed with a laugh.

"Want a hand back?" he offered. "I'm kind of superfluous here."

"No, thanks, I'm fine. Keep trying to get him to smile. He tells me he's smiling all the time, but I don't think he is."

"I'm not smiling right now,'' Dillon said mildly. "Like to guess why?"

She laughed again. "Ziggy, make sure and see me before you leave."

"Promise," Ziggy agreed. "Come on, Merrick, we don't want to make you late for Sensei Kanoi."

He had to leave them to it, in the end. There wasn't much left to do, and he thought they might manage it by dinner time. One of the ninjas pointed him to Sensei Kanoi's rooms; Marah was lurking outside, and she showed him an anteroom where he could wash up, reminding him softly to remove his shoes before he went in.

"Uncle's old fashioned," she told him. "Have fun."

Merrick was expecting an interrogation, but there was nothing of the kind. Sensei Kanoi asked about the Mountain, but only in general terms; he asked about Merrick's travels, but in terms of Merrick and his companions, not in terms of where they'd traveled. He was the first person who'd done that; oddly, Merrick found himself answering in more detail because Sensei Kanoi hadn't asked.

The food was plain, but just as good as at the Mountain. Merrick repeated Jayden's observation, and Sensei Kanoi considered it for several minutes. "It is true, we have not had as much trouble as I feared," he said thoughtfully. "We have never been farmers, here, but some basic instruction manuals and foraged tools and seed have fed us all. I had not thought it unusual."

"We should have," Merrick told him. "These are things we should have noticed. Why didn't we?"

"Perhaps the question should be, why did Jayden? What is special about him that he saw things we did not?"

"Something else that happened to him." Merrick recounted Jayden's description of the Warrior's speech.

Sensei Kanoi nodded thoughtfully, rising slowly to his feet. "Will you walk with me, Merrick? There is something I think you might like to see. Something your Tommy Oliver may need to know, if he is unaware."

Merrick followed him out to an open area at the rear of the buildings. Ninjas were leading classes in what looked like tai chi, or a variant; Sensei Kanoi passed them without paying much attention, crossing the rear of the field. Behind privacy partitions, Marah and Kapri were fighting.

Sparring, Merrick corrected himself a moment later, but it took skill to tell the difference; to anyone unused to watching practise, the girls seemed to be trying to genuinely hurt each other. He glanced around, uncomfortable, studying the mountains surrounding them warily.

"What do you see?" Sensei Kanoi asked.

"They're sparring."

"Are you sure?"

"They're sisters, aren't they? I'm quite sure they aren't trying to hurt each other."

"Perhaps you never had siblings," Sensei Kanoi murmured. "To one who was unaware of their relationship, what would it look like?"

"It would look like they were trying to hurt each other." There, a shadow almost out of his field of view; was that a Warrior, watching them? "Sensei Kanoi, can you just tell me what you're trying to tell me?"

"He doesn't really do that." Hunter joined them on Merrick's other side. "He's very big on figuring things out for yourself."

Merrick scowled, watching the girls for a moment before looking back at the mountains. He was almost sure that was a Warrior, watching them patiently.

"If that's a Warrior," he said slowly, "and he's watching you, he knows they're not fighting. They know the difference between sparring and fighting, at any level."

"Yes," Sensei Kanoi said serenely. "We discovered it by accident, one day. We were not aware of the Warrior until several students had already sparred, some quite viciously."

"It's always there?" Merrick asked.

"A Warrior is always there. I have no way of knowing if it is the same Warrior at all times. Perhaps it is the same Warrior who spoke to your friend."

"What?" Hunter said sharply.

Merrick recounted it again, watching Hunter's frown. "What?"

Hunter shook his head. "Nothing. Just wonder what it means."

"If we can figure out how he did it, it means we might have a chance." He looked up at the watching Warrior. "He's never given you any trouble?"

"None at all. He merely watches. Some of the people here think we should leave, find another place. But there is no guarantee he would not simply follow us, and here we know where we are."

"True," Merrick murmured. Glancing at Hunter, he added, "Maybe a survey of the area around the Mountain." 

"What's the point? If there's one there, we can't do anything about it. It'll just scare people."

Sensei Kanoi turned away as a young boy trotted up to them. Merrick kept watching the girls, noting the completely unfamiliar moves they were using. "They're aliens?"

"Depends on your definition, I guess. But yeah, they grew up off world."

"And Marah turned because of Dustin."

Hunter snorted softly. "Partly. That was complicated."

"Oh?"

"Did you really have a god sleeping in your base that you didn't know about?"

"We knew he was there," Merrick said, vaguely insulted. "We didn't know he was Animus, not until he choose to tell us. What's your point?"

"Ranger urban legends. They get distorted pretty quick."

Sensei Kanoi turned back to them. "Ranger Merrick, I am told that Ranger Danny would like some help."

"Sure," Merrick agreed. "Where is he?"

"In the greenhouses. To the west of the main building."

Merrick nodded, turning away. The wolf bounded up from wherever she'd been, and he smiled faintly. "Find anything interesting?" She looked away loftily and he smiled again.

The greenhouses were busy. Merrick tracked down Danny by following the sidelong glances from people, absently glancing around to make sure the wolf was following him.

Danny was working at one end of a long bench, talking quietly with Dillon's sister. She was surprisingly nimble, carefully filling pots with compost as Danny described what he was doing.

"Did you want me?" Merrick asked, leaning against the bench.

"Merrick, hey, yeah. C'mere. I'll be back in a minute," he added to her, and she nodded quickly.

Merrick followed him through to a small storeroom at the side of the greenhouse. Danny closed the door, turning to look at him. "Do you see Max?"

Merrick frowned. "Now, or in general?"

"Either."

"I have seen him, yes. Not right now, though. Why?"

"No one else does. I thought it was – I don't usually see him when other people are around, so I thought it was only because I miss him."

"No. I've seen him. And almost only when other people were around."

"Do you think other people can see him?"

Merrick shook his head. "No. The only person who may have seen him is Ziggy."

"Ziggy?" Danny repeated, confused. "Why Ziggy? What does he have to do with anything?"

"I don't know."

Danny was silent for a moment. "Is he really Max?"

"I don't know," Merrick repeated quietly.


	41. Parents

Dana had caught a couple of naps in the infirmary, but she hadn't really slept. When someone tapped at the door, it took her a moment to realise who it was.

"Cody." She waved him in, studying him quickly. "Are you hurt?"

"No," he assured her. "I'm supposed to help you here."

"Why?" she asked in surprise.

Cody looked away. "Ranger Wes sent me."

"Why?" she probed gently. She didn't need any help, the rush of injuries had died down, and she knew Wes knew it.

He sighed. "I was sneaking onto extra search teams to try and look for people."

"Cody..."

"I won the game. I know the hiding places."

"No one is hiding," Dana reminded him. "That's not what we're looking for. No one is anywhere they wouldn't be anyway."

"I still know my way around better than most people," he muttered.

"I know you're trying to help. But we decided that all the kids would only do an hour, Cody, and that includes you. You can help me here, or you can find Mia and go back to get some rest."

"I'll help."

"Good." She smiled at him. "Everything got pretty messy while we were working. I need you to start tidying up, ok? And then we'll do some restocking."

Cody went to start work; Dana caught Trent's eye and he nodded, shifting slightly so he could watch Cody while continuing his own work. Dana slipped out into the corridor, finding the nearest Guardian.

"Please send a message to Ranger Mia. The last I knew, she was in the Storm level gym. Tell her that Cody is with me, and she can come get him, or I'll keep him here, whichever she likes."

The Guardian nodded briskly and she slipped back inside. Cody might be grumpy, but he was at least honestly working, clearing away rubbish and tidying whatever could be reused. Dana left him to it, going back to her paperwork.

Mia arrived a little later, tapping on Dana's door frame. "Ranger Dana?"

"Just Dana," she said automatically, looking up. "You're a Ranger now, you don't have to...is that coffee?"

"They're passing it out in the gyms, I thought you might appreciate some down here." She put a cup on Dana's desk, calling Cody to pass the rest around. "Check with Ranger Trent, some of the patients might not be allowed any," she told him.

Dana inhaled some of hers, smiling blissfully. "Mmm. Thank you, Ranger Mia."

"I'm not a Ranger." Mia leaned against the wall. "Can I help with anything?"

"You are a Ranger. I know you didn't serve, but..."

"No," Mia said over her. "Jayden's going to refuse the title for us both. He just didn't get a chance before he had to leave on the mission."

"Why would he do that?" Dana said blankly.

Mia quietly explained Jayden's reasoning. "As far as we're concerned, Antonio's one of us," she said. "But he isn't a descendant. We can't say he's our Blue, or our Green; he doesn't even have symbol power. He can't be called Ranger, so we won't either."

"I see," Dana said thoughtfully. "Has Jayden talked to Tommy about this?"

"He was going to, but the mission came up before he could. Why? Ranger Tommy won't give Antonio a title."

"No," Dana agreed. "But there might be a compromise."

"Maybe," Mia said, but her tone made it clear she wasn't convinced. "He'll talk to him when he gets back, anyway. Have you heard anything about the mission?"

"Yes, they made it to the academy fine. Danny twisted his ankle, so they're waiting an extra day before coming home, but they should be back pretty soon."

Cody knocked on the door frame. "Ranger Dana, we're ready to start restocking the trays."

"I'll be there in a minute," she told him. He nodded, turning away again.

"I can take him away if you want," Mia offered.

"No. He's not in the way. Let him feel useful." Mia nodded and Dana smiled faintly. "It's tough, huh?"

"He doesn't really trust anyone except Jayden. I mean, he's getting better, but..." Mia shrugged.

"Parenting," Dana said sympathetically.

"It's so different from teaching," she agreed. "Can I help? I'd rather be doing something, and my kids are mostly gone to bed."

"Sure," Dana said with a grin. "There's plenty of cleaning up to do. Come on."


	42. Sixth Sense

The journey back to the Mountain seemed shorter, even though they were traveling more slowly to accommodate Danny's ankle.

"The weather," Antonio suggested, when Jayden mentioned it during a rest period. "Not being soaked is definitely nicer than being soaked."

"Maybe," Jayden agreed.

"And not being on watch for those kids."

"They weren't any trouble, really."

"It's still better this time."

Jayden smiled. "If a little cold."

"Well, that's what you're here for."

"Good to know I have my uses," he said dryly.

Antonio propped himself up on one elbow, studying him. "Jayden, was that sarcasm? Mentor Ji would be disgusted. Imagine taking the time to be sarcastic when you could be training."

"Training for what?"

He shrugged, lying back down. "Whatever happens next."

"Next," Jayden repeated softly.

"Hey, look." Antonio pointed across him. Jayden followed his look, smiling when he realised what he was looking at; badger cubs, playing on a bank under the watchful eye of their mother.

"See?" Antonio murmured. "Life goes on, Jayden."

"Not for everyone."

"No."

"I'm never sure if you two are really sweet or really depressing," Ziggy said from where he was lying.

"I'm quite sure eavesdropping is always rude," Antonio answered, but he didn't sound especially upset.

"I'm not sure it's eavesdropping, considering how loudly you were talking."

"If you three have enough energy to fight, you have enough to get going," Hunter decided. "Come on. Everyone up. It's almost dawn anyway."

"Aw," Ziggy protested, but he got up and helped them gather up their belongings. 

Danny wasn't supposed to carry the tray of seedlings on his own, but that just meant he hovered around whoever was carrying it, anxiously fussing and trying to help. It was supposed to be Ziggy's turn; Jayden quietly picked up the tray before he could, shrugging at his look and starting off.

The journey took them through Angel Grove. Merrick pointed out two of Lauren's men to Hunter as they entered the town, but they weren't stopped or challenged, just watched as they passed through.

Lauren was waiting as they reached the centre of town, what had once been Angel Grove Park. Jayden hesitated; Antonio took the tray from him, nudging him forcefully, and he stumbled forward a step or two. "Lauren."

"Jayden," she replied evenly. Looking past him at Hunter, she said "If you're going this way, I'll go with you. It's dangerous, especially at this time of day; there are sinkholes and crevices, and it's hard to see before the sun comes up. I can show you through."

"Thank you," Hunter agreed.

"How are you?" Jayden asked.

Lauren glanced at him, smiling. "Awkward, isn't it?" She turned to head into the park and he followed, falling into step beside her. "Where are you coming from?"

"Near Blue Bay Harbour. Is – how are you, Lauren?"

She considered for a long moment. "Antonio said you waited for me. When the attacks started."

"Yes."

"Even though you had people to protect."

Jayden swallowed. "Yes."

"That was foolish," she said softly.

"Yes," he breathed, immediately adding "No. I'd still be waiting for you if we hadn't been attacked. I'd wait forever for you."

"Foolish," Lauren repeated. "You should have taken care of your people."

"You're my sister. Nothing matters more than you."

Antonio caught his shoulder from behind, halting them both. "Anyone hear that?"

"Hear what?" Lauren asked, frowning.

"That."

"I don't hear anything," Jayden said. Ziggy was looking around, studying nearby trees in the dawn light.

Danny caught up to them, trailing Merrick and Hunter. "Can you guys hear that?"

"I don't hear anything," Hunter said.

Antonio frowned. "Merrick?"

"I hear nothing," Merrick said, but his tone was so deliberate he clearly meant something else.

"No," Ziggy agreed abruptly. "It's not hearing, is it."

"Antonio," Jayden murmured.

Antonio glanced distractedly at him. "It's not...there's no sound, it's just..." He caught Jayden's hand, pressing it against his chest. "There. It's a feeling, like a vibration."

"I don't feel anything like that."

"Neither do I," Hunter agreed.

Antonio glanced at Lauren. "Princess?"

"Yes."

A figure stepped out of nothingness a few feet away. Merrick caught Ziggy's arm, pulling him back into the group, and Hunter took the tray of plants from Antonio, putting them down out of the way.

The figure came towards them, stepping out of the shadows into the sunlight, studying them openly. Hunter frowned; the figure was a woman in leather armour, all flowing dark hair and shining weapons.

"I see it's happened again," she remarked. Jayden and Hunter both took a step back under the power in her voice; the others didn't seem to be affected. "How nice for you all."

"Who are you?" Antonio demanded, taking a step to the side to cover Jayden.

She smiled. "As it once was, it is again. You knew me once, Draganta."

"Antonio."

"If you chose to believe that." She glanced over the group. "All five. I see you learned from last time. And you too, you old goat."

Max smiled ferally from one end of the group. "Macha."

Antonio glanced at him in surprise. "What is..."

"We can stop you," Merrick said over him.

"Perhaps. Being is one thing. Knowing is something else." She smiled again. "We'll see what happens." She turned away, vanishing mid step.

Jayden shook his head sharply as though trying to clear it. "What is...Antonio?"

"Don't know yet." He reached out for Jayden's hand, smiling apologetically at him.

"Max?" Danny said hopefully.

"No," Merrick said quietly. "It's not Max."

"No," Max agreed. "I look like Max because you trust him. Your friends see something different."

Jayden squeezed Antonio's hand, murmuring, "Whatever you're looking at, I don't see it."

"Me either," Hunter agreed.

Antonio glanced at Max, who shook his head. "Can't be helped. No more time. Now, I'm sorry. This won't be pleasant, especially for you, Draganta, and I won't be able to help any more when it's done. I'd hoped it won't be necessary." He clapped his hands together sharply.

Jayden took a step back, startled, as all five of them simply fell over. Hunter bumped his shoulder from behind, moving to check on Merrick and Danny; Jayden followed suit. Lauren was already moving when he knelt beside her, and she nodded when he asked if she was all right, so he turned to Ziggy.

"I'm fine," Ziggy assured him, though he wasn't quite focusing. "Don't touch him," he added.

Jayden hesitated, hand hovering above Antonio's shoulder. "What?"

"Don't touch him." Ziggy rolled over with an obvious effort, studying them. "He needs another minute."

"What do you mean?"

Lauren pushed herself to her feet as Merrick came to join them. "Where's Fin Varra?"

"Gone," Merrick said shortly. "Jayden, don't touch him."

Jayden grimaced, hand closing into a fist. "Someone explain."

He could sense them looking at each other over his head, and that didn't make any sense either; Ziggy barely knew Merrick and Lauren had never met either of them. They shouldn't have anything to look significantly at each other about.

"Better if he tells you," Lauren said finally, gently wrapping her fingers around his hand. "Come on. Come here."

Jayden let her pull him upright and take a couple of steps away. Ziggy knelt beside Antonio, watching him carefully; Merrick followed Lauren and Jayden, and a moment later Hunter joined them, supporting Danny.

"Anyone like to tell me what's going on?" Hunter asked. "Danny's being vague to the point of uselessness."

"Hey," Danny protested half heartedly.

"We should wait until we see Tommy," Lauren said. "There's no point in explaining more than once."

"You're coming to the Mountain?" Jayden said in surprise.

"Yes. I have to, now." Catching his eye, she added, "I'm still not staying, Jayden. But this is important. It has to be dealt with."

"What's wrong with Antonio?" Hunter demanded.

Merrick frowned, turning to follow his gaze. "Anto...oh. He just needs a little longer than we did."

"Longer for what?"

"To remember," he said unhelpfully.

"Merrick," Jayden said carefully. "Please say something that makes sense."

Merrick didn't react, but Lauren smiled at him. "He's fine, Jayden. I promise. Just give him a moment, and then you'll see for yourself."

Jayden took a step away, twisting his hand free of her grip. She didn't try to chase him, and no one tried to stop him as he lowered himself to kneel beside Antonio. Ziggy was talking softly; Jayden could hear him clearly, but the words weren't in English and he had no idea what he was saying.

A moment later Ziggy interrupted himself mid-word. "There," he said, scooting back a little. "He'll need a minute, Jayden, but you can go ahead."

Jayden nodded distractedly, leaning over. " 'Tonio?"

Antonio answered, but it was neither English nor Spanish, and he looked oddly confused at his own words.

"No," Ziggy said from beside them. "It's Jayden. Concentrate." Antonio replied, and he nodded. "Yes, but you have to concentrate. Think about where you are."

"Hell," Antonio muttered. "Jay, up."

Jayden helped him sit up, watching warily as he wobbled. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, fine, I'm just...mearbhall..."

"Confused," Ziggy supplied without looking at Jayden. "It'll pass. Just remember where you are."

Antonio nodded, pushing gently at Jayden until he backed up a little, enough for their eyes to meet. "I remember you."

Merrick hunkered beside them, studying Antonio. "What do you want to do?" Antonio snapped a response, and Merrick shrugged, unphased. "Because it always is."

"Don't you have anything else to worry about?"

"Not this time."

Antonio sighed, hauling himself to his feet. "We'd better go up. Oliver needs to know what's happening."

"What's happening?" Jayden asked.

Antonio glanced at him, not quite focusing on him. "Tell you in a bit."

Jayden glanced over at Hunter, who shrugged. "I can't even get them to look at me."

"Come on." Antonio reached for Jayden's hand, tugging lightly. "I promise, it'll all – well, it might not make sense. It doesn't to me. But I'll tell you everything. Just let's get inside. Oliver needs to hear, as well."

"You mean Ranger Tommy?"

"Yes," he said thoughtfully. "Yes, I do."


	43. King

Rocky met them at the entrance, raising an eyebrow at Lauren. "Problems, Hunter?"

"Really not sure. Something's going on. Where's Tommy?"

"In Command. What do you mean, something's going on?"

"Bring him to the gym where you met Jayden," Antonio told him, plucking a lantern out of his hands and walking past without stopping.

"What?" Rocky said blankly. 

Hunter shook his head, stepping to one side to make room for Lauren and Merrick. "I don't know what's going on, Rocky, but I'd get hold of Tommy right now if I were you."

"Where are you going?" Rocky demanded.

"To find Mia and Cody. They might help. See if you can find Cole or Alyssa, too." He headed off towards the dorms.

Rocky shook his head, turning to Dom, who'd been watching in silence. "I have to..."

"Yeah, go ahead. Want me to find Cole and Alyssa?"

"Yeah, d'you mind? They need to head to the secondary gym in Beta Rescue."

"Got it."

Rocky nodded, waving the nearest Guardian to take the watch and heading for Command. Spencer started to block him, saw the look on his face, and stepped aside.

"What is it?" Tommy asked without looking up.

"Something's going on, and you need to come see."

"I'm busy, Rock."

Rocky stepped forward, leaning on the paperwork Tommy was staring at. "Something's going on, and you need to come see."

Tommy looked up finally, meeting his eyes. "What is it?"

"No earthly clue, and I mean that literally."

"I need anyone?"

"Adam. Apart from that I think we've got it covered. But we have to go."

Tommy nodded, pushing to his feet. "Let's go. Spencer?"

"Ranger Adam is on his way."

"You too," Tommy told him, following Rocky. Spencer frowned but followed after them, and a moment later Adam caught up.

The small gym was full of people when they reached it; Rocky glanced around, noting Mia and Cody, Cole but no Alyssa. Tommy was glancing around as well, focusing on Lauren, the only person he didn't recognise. "Who..."

"I'm assuming Lauren, but no one's actually said anything yet. Merrick!"

Merrick glanced up, took them in and turned, murmuring to Antonio. He nodded, crossing to meet them with Lauren in tow.

"Tommy. Rocky, Adam, and Spencer. Lauren Shiba."

"Pleasure," Tommy said; he hadn't missed that Antonio wasn't using their titles, which was unusual for him. From the corner of his eye he could see Merrick and Danny quietly shuffling Cole over to join Mia and Cody before backing away; it left the room with three distinct groups, and Jayden, who seemed to be avoiding everyone. "What's going on, Antonio?"

Antonio visibly took a breath. "We know what's happened."

"What's happened where?"

"The world is wrong. That's what Jayden told you. He was right. We know what's happened."

"And what is it?"

"A long story."

He glanced at Lauren, who shook her head. "This is all you."

"Someone had better tell me," Tommy said warningly.

Antonio looked back, studying him. Tommy frowned; Antonio seemed older, somehow. "Jayden?" Antonio said without looking away. "Please tell everyone what you saw outside."

Jayden repeated what had happened, voice flat. Antonio was watching Tommy; Rocky was watching Jayden. Something was wrong, there, but he couldn't tell what. He thought Mia had seen it as well.

Tommy glanced at Jayden when he finished talking. "Thank you." Turning back to Antonio, he raised an eyebrow.

"Two thousand years ago in Ireland, there was a team of what you'd probably call Rangers," Antonio said, eyes going distant. "They fought for freedom against monsters from Anwnn, the Other World. Their leader, Knight of Fire, had been prophesied. 'Draganta will bring peace for a hundred lifetimes'. That was his legacy."

"I don't follow," Rocky said, when Tommy was silent.

Antonio focused again, smiling sadly. "That was a hundred lifetimes ago."

Jayden took a step forward. "She called you Draganta."

"Yes," Antonio agreed.

"Antonio..."

"Yes," Antonio repeated. "Him too."

"We are..." Lauren paused to consider. "Call us reincarnations; it's the closest word you have."

"Lauren," Jayden protested.

"Yes." She smiled at him. "I'm still Lauren, Jayden. I promise. I just remember being Deirdre, too."

"You said you know what's happening?" Adam asked quietly.

Antonio nodded. "Peace for a hundred lifetimes. Now the old gods, our gods, are waking up. Macha is the first."

"Macha?"

"Anann, Badb, and Macha; the triple goddess Morrigan," Lauren told him. "Morrigan is the war goddess, ruler of death and life, foreteller of death and guide to the Other World. Badb rules war and warriors; Anann culls the weak and protects the herd; Macha rules fertility and prosperity."

"The plants," Jayden murmured.

Merrick glanced at him. "Yes. You were right about that. Good eye."

"Antonio, nothing you're saying is making sense," Tommy said impatiently.

"The Morrigan rules the whole cycle," Antonio said carefully. "Fertility, war, life and death. But when she woke, she looked at the world, and she saw imbalance. Too much war, too little growth. Too much death, too little life. So she removed war."

"You can't – _remove_ war," Tommy protested. "It's not a tangible."

Merrick shrugged. "There is no more violence. None of your weapons work, and no less advanced weapon is permitted. No one makes war on another. I've been walking the world, Tommy, I've seen this. The Morrigan's Warriors know the difference between fighting and sparring, and they'll permit one, but not the other."

"If the point of this was to reduce death, why kill so many?" Adam asked.

"Balance," Danny said softly. "The Morrigan is Tuatha de Danann; the people of the goddess Danu. She does not see as we see." He glanced at Cole. "Now the world is not being poisoned; there's no factories, no oil burning, no pollution. Animus might approve."

"Danny," Cole protested. "You can't believe this was a good thing."

"No," he agreed. "I'm not excusing. Only explaining."

"Who were you?" Jayden asked abruptly.

Danny smiled. "Garrett. Mystic Knight of Forest. I was – you'd call me a Sixth, though we were only five."

"Arrogant," Ziggy murmured, speaking for the first time.

"Yes," Danny agreed. "Easier to see from off the dais, was it?"

Ziggy made a face at him. "They were all variations of royalty," he said to Jayden's look. "Angus wasn't."

"Angus was a thief and a con-man," Lauren said.

"Reformed!" Ziggy protested.

"And a good, loyal man," she added. "A good friend."

Tommy shook his head sharply. "Look, it's very entertaining meeting your alter egos. We need to know how to stop her."

"Stop Her," Antonio repeated blankly.

"Fix this. Undo it."

"There's no undoing what The Morrigan has done."

"There is always a way to save the world."

"The world's not in danger," Ziggy pointed out. "The world is doing a lot better now. Danny told you. No deforestation, no pollution."

"Humanity is verging on extinction," Tommy said, frustrated.

"That's not a problem for the world."

"It might be a problem for your Morrigan," Mia pointed out. "Gods need worship to exist."

"The de Danann were before and will be after," Antonio told her. Turning to Tommy, he said carefully, "There is no undoing what The Morrigan has done. Stop trying to fight back. You won't win. Live in this world, Tommy Oliver; you can flourish here, if you're careful."

"Her Warriors can be stopped."

"Her Warriors are kind," he said flatly. "The Morrigan is a war goddess. Badb revels in it; She turns battles to amuse Herself, as She pleases. You are alive because She has not chosen otherwise. Stay under Her notice."

Rocky took a quick half step forward. "You said Macha was the first. That mean the others are coming?"

"In time. Maybe not this lifetime, or the next. The Tuatha live long and their ways are not ours."

Tommy considered them for a long moment before looking at Merrick. "Where's your loyalty now, Merrick?"

"With my team." He didn't specify; Cole looked vaguely resigned.

"And you, Antonio?"

"We've never worshipped The Morrigan, nor followed her, in this life or any other. We always fought for the peoples' freedom. That hasn't changed."

"Antonio," Jayden murmured.

Antonio turned, crossing the room to catch Jayden's hands. "My life is still in your hands," he said softly. "I'm still Antonio. I'm still always yours. Draganta was only ever a title. He was never who I was."

"If Draganta brought peace once," Spencer said into the silence, "Can he do it again? Can you return the Morrigan to sleep?"

"The first peace was destined," Lauren told him. "Her waking was destined too. It can't be undone."

Tommy folded his arms. "I can't have anyone here who isn't working with us."

"Who said anything about not working with you?" Ziggy protested. "Would you rather we hadn't told you what we know? We haven't switched teams or whatever you're thinking. We just know a little more than you do."

Tommy was shaking his head; Rocky caught his arm, glancing at Adam for help. "Excuse us for a minute, we need to talk to Tommy. Outside." Between them they bundled Tommy out; Spencer followed on their heels, carefully closing the door behind them.

"They can't be here," Tommy said immediately.

"Tom, think for a minute," Adam said. "They haven't moved against us. They haven't said anything that says they will. They're still exactly the same people they were before."

"They want us to give up."

"I don't think they do."

"Stop fighting back? It's giving up, Adam. Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger, and you think we should stop?"

"Tommy," Rocky said quietly, "we're not fighting back now."

"Rocky..."

"We're not. We're making a new life, but we're not fighting back. The foragers go out unarmed, we're fishing and farming and raising animals and doing all of it unarmed. When we see a Warrior we hide, placate or run. There's no fighting, not any more."

Tommy paced two steps away, scowling. "So you want to give up."

"No. I want to stay alive. I want everyone here in the Mountain to _stay alive_. Nothing is changing, Tommy."

Cole slipped out, closing the door behind himself. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Tommy said shortly. "What are they doing?"

"Nothing. Antonio's talking to Jayden and his team, and the others are just waiting. I think Lauren's getting antsy to leave."

"I'll walk her out," Adam offered.

"Jayden wants to," Cole told him. "They're just waiting for Tommy."

"Why? We're done." Tommy turned away.

"Tommy," Rocky protested.

"We're done," he repeated.

Adam grimaced, turning to Spencer. "See if you can do anything. He's still listening to you, mostly."

"Shall I repopulate the world as well? It might be easier."

"I'll leave that to your judgement."

Spencer huffed, turning away, and Rocky sighed. "Something's wrong there."

"Something's wrong in there, too," Cole pointed out.

"Do we believe them?" Adam asked, folding his arms and leaning against the wall.

"Is there any reason we shouldn't? Even Ziggy wouldn't try this, and if he did the others wouldn't go along with it. Especially not Lauren. She was very definite about not coming in here."

Cole nodded. "Merrick and Danny wouldn't, either."

"What should we do?" Adam asked, watching Rocky pace.

"What is there to do? We haven't learned anything that helps us, not really."

Adam turned suddenly, stepping back into the room. "Royalty?" he demanded. "Ziggy said you were all royalty."

Antonio turned to Lauren, who curtseyed neatly. "Deirdre, Princess and later Queen of Kells."

Danny bowed. "Garrett, Prince of Reged – a small kingdom in mainland Britain," he added when Adam frowned.

Merrick shook his head. "The name of my kingdom has long faded from memory. It would mean nothing to anyone now."

Adam turned to Ziggy, who shook his head. "Common as muck, me," he said cheerfully.

"A little less common than that," Antonio told him. "I don't know anyone quite like you."

"Were you royal too?" Cody asked, wide eyed.

Antonio shrugged. "Rohan's mother was the queen of Temra. But he didn't grow up with her, and he never took the throne."

"Why not?"

"Maybe we can talk about that later," Jayden suggested. Antonio smiled at him and he grinned, turning to Adam. "Where's Ranger Tommy?"

"He was called away. Lauren, thank you for coming to explain this to us. You're free to leave whenever you want; Jayden will walk you out."

Cole stirred. "Are you safe out there, Lauren? The Warriors won't be targeting you or anything?"

"If anything, they'll be less likely to come near me now. They'll remember the Mystic Knights. Thank you." She glanced at Jayden, who murmured to Mia for a moment before leading his sister out of the room. Mia was on their heels with Cody, but she led him in a different direction.

Antonio studied Adam and Rocky for a moment before smiling ruefully. "Tommy doesn't like this much."

"Tommy's never really been good at _stopping_ ," Rocky told him. "Longest serving Ranger in Earth's history and he still came back for another go. You're saying there's no way to stop Morrigan and it feels like giving up, to him. He doesn't know how to do that."

"The Morrigan isn't evil," Ziggy told them. "She's not looking for reasons to kill anyone. There must be death for there to be life; that is her function, not revenge or killing for killing's sake. If you avoid violence, there's no reason to hide down here. We can live in the sun again."

"That would be nice," Rocky murmured. "Thank you, guys. Go on and do whatever you'd normally be doing. Danny, did you manage to get hold of the plants?"

"Yeah, uh..."

"Hunter took them," Ziggy told them. "He probably brought them down to hydroponics."

"Good. Let us know if you need anything else." Rocky stepped out of the room, took a breath, and headed towards Command.


	44. Queen

Jayden was awkwardly silent as they walked through the corridors. Lauren was glancing around curiously, studying the rooms they passed.

"Are you happy here?" she asked suddenly.

"Happy?" he repeated.

"Deirdre didn't have siblings. The Knights, in a way. But no one – no one who was blood of her blood, her parents' children. You're important, Jayden. I want you to be happy. If it isn't here, I'll help you find where it is."

Jayden considered it as they stepped out through the entrance and started down the slope. "There's the others."

"Forget the others. We can deal with the others. Are you, Jayden Shiba, happy here, in the Mountain?"

"I'm happy with the others."

He'd moved on a couple of steps before he realised she'd stopped; standing on the slope, their faces were level. "Is that here, Jayden?"

"It has to be. I can't take Cody away from here."

"I said forget the others."

Jayden smiled suddenly. "Queen of Kells?"

"Yes. Once. Long ago."

"And Lady Shiba this time around. Between you, you make a very good leader." He took her hand, smiling. "I'm happy with the others. I don't need to be saved. Thank you."

"I'm glad."

They started walking again, taking their time down the slope. They were silent for a while until Lauren said suddenly, "It doesn't change things."

"It changes everything," Jayden said without looking at her.

"Not the important things. I knew Rohan, Jayden. He was a good man, my best and most trusted friend for years. If Antonio's anything like him..."

"It shouldn't matter what Rohan was like. Rohan's not _here._ That's what you said."

"Deirdre's not here. It's not quite the same for Rohan. Draganta was something else, something beyond us."

He halted, staring at her. "So how many of them are here?"

"None of them – Jayden, wait, let me – I need to think of the words. I'm thinking about all this in Old Gaelic and it doesn't translate."

Jayden nodded sharply, starting down the slope again. Lauren kept up, thinking intently.

They reached the bottom of the slope and slowed, ambling towards Angel Grove. Finally Lauren nodded, taking a deep breath.

"We had symbol power."

"Yes."

"And it's gone now."

"Yes."

She stopped, waiting until he turned to face her. "You are Jayden Shiba. Right now, right here, you're Jayden. If the symbol power came back, you'd still be Jayden. You'd just be Jayden with symbol power instead of Jayden without. It wouldn't change who you actually are, inside."

Jayden considered that for a moment. "All right."

"I'm still Lauren. Eighteenth head of the Shiba House, and more importantly, I'm your sister. I'm just Lauren who remembers being Deirdre. She's not here, there's no influence or possession or anything."

"All right," Jayden repeated. "And Antonio?"

"Antonio's a little more complicated, because Rohan was already something extra. It's still not possession, or influence. But Draganta was something slightly more than human, and Antonio might begin to react to things as he did, or try and do things as he would. And I don't know how that'll work; his powers were from the Tuatha, and The Morrigan has taken them, now."

"So what do I do?"

"Keep reminding him where he is. Who he is. Make him be Antonio." She touched his cheek lightly. "It won't change how he feels about you. Draganta understood following a cause. He never took the Temra throne because he'd sworn himself to Kells as a warrior, because he thought of himself as a Kells man."

"I don't want to need Draganta's understanding to keep Antonio. I want Antonio." Jayden blinked as though surprised by his own words, but Lauren only nodded.

"I'm sorry this is upsetting you, but Antonio always was Draganta. It's just that he knows it now. I can keep telling you that this won't change anything, or you can go and talk to him yourself."

"I'll talk to him," Jayden agreed, glancing towards town. "Will your people have missed you?"

"They'll know I'm not in town, but they're not massing to march on the Mountain or anything. Don't worry."

"I don't care much about the Mountain right now. Do you want me to walk you in?"

"No. I'm safe here."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm safe here," she said again. "I'll see you soon, Jayden."

"Thank you," he said softly, and she grinned, turning away. Jayden watched until she disappeared into the distance; then he started back up the slope to the nearest entrance.


	45. Heart

Mia and Cody were missing. Antonio wasn't sure where they were, and didn't care much. He wasn't feeling up to a discussion; he'd gone so far as to settle in one of the unused rooms in their dorm.

Ziggy was sitting on the floor next to the door; he wasn't talking, but the part of Rohan that had always known when Angus was near was very aware of him. Antonio was doing his best to ignore him.

Someone came into the dorm. Ziggy stood, moving with Angus' fluidity, and leaned into the corridor for a moment. "It's Jayden."

"Not now," Antonio said tightly. He hated doing it to Jayden, but until he sorted out the mess in his head, he didn't dare talk to him.

"I won't talk," Jayden offered from the hall. "I can wait in our room if you like."

Antonio gave in. He badly didn't want to be alone, and as much as he'd loved Angus once, Ziggy wasn't who he needed right now. "No talking, Jay. I mean it. Not a word unless I ask you."

"I promise."

He glanced at Ziggy, letting the Gaelic fill his mind. "He can't talk to me."

"I'll make sure," Ziggy answered in English. Antonio vaguely envied him; he seemed to be having an easier time than anyone keeping his selves separate.

Turning to Jayden, Ziggy explained quietly, "He has to sort out the bits of Rohan and the bits of Draganta and make sure he knows which is which. It'll take some time, and if we distract him, it'll make it harder."

"I'll be quiet," Jayden promised. "I just want to be here."

Antonio held out a hand and Jayden took it, settling on the edge of the bed. Antonio squeezed gently, leaving his hand in Jayden's as he flopped back to lie on his back. They were quiet for a long time; occasionally Antonio asked one of them a question, usually along the lines of "Do I remember when..." At first any questions directed to Ziggy were in Gaelic, but as he sorted and organised more and more memories he managed to stay in English. Ziggy's answers were always English, anyway, and he was very, very grateful.

Jayden quietly answered what he was asked and stayed silent apart from that. He'd started out sitting up, but as time went by he started to slump, and eventually he ended up lying flat on his back on his side of the bed. Ziggy sacked out on the floor, obviously dozing, rousing to answer the increasingly infrequent questions.

"Jayden," Antonio said finally. Jayden shifted, and he added "Talk to me for a minute."

"About?"

"Anything you like."

Jayden started reciting practise forms in a passable impression of Ji, and Antonio laughed softly. "That's perfect," he said when Jayden hesitated. "Keep going for a minute." 

"Left foot down, extend, hold. Release. Right foot in. Turn. Right hand down. Don't leave me."

"I'm not," Antonio promised.

"Hold, hold, release. Left hand in. Left foot out."

Ziggy woke, sitting up to listen. After a few minutes he shifted, leaning against the wall. "What is that, Jayden? I don't recognise the style."

Jayden glanced at Antonio before answering. "It's the Shiba family style. A little of a lot of things."

"I'd like to try it some time."

"If you like."

"I'm hungry," Antonio announced, sitting upright. "Who's hungry? Let's go."

Ziggy disappeared along the way, muttering something about checking in with the kids, but Danny was in the canteen and he waved them over exuberantly. Justin had been sitting with him, but he vanished as they approached; Jayden noted Wes and Eric nearby, notable mostly because Eric very rarely left the Ranger sections. When he did he usually sat with Wild Force, so they should have been sitting with Danny.

Danny chatted happily about his new plants, and about the repairs that had been finished and the ones they were still working on. Jayden had at least helped down there a couple of times, so he could ask questions; Antonio more or less nodded along, focusing on his food.

Danny invited them down to hydroponics when they'd finished eating, to see the new plants. Jayden refused on both their behalves, and he wasn't surprised when Merrick joined them within a couple of hundred yards, and Theo happened to be going in the same direction some distance behind them.

"Having your old team bodyguard you is not making Tommy any less suspicious," he said lightly.

"They aren't bodyguarding me," Antonio told him.

"Really? That's what it looks like from here."

"They're not bodyguarding me. Merrick?"

"Bodyguarding," Merrick said blandly.

"Ivar!"

Merrick shrugged. "As it once was, it is again."

"You didn't bodyguard Rohan."

"If that's what you like to believe."

"Merrick," Antonio said impatiently. "We're in the Mountain. What do you think is going to happen?"

"We think that Tommy Oliver didn't like what you told him, and now he's having you followed."

"Of course he's having me followed, you guys are making it look like we're conspiring against him!"

"If that's what he likes to believe."

Antonio made a face. "Merrick, go away. I'm only going to bed, and my team will be there."

It had to be a deliberate choice of word, but it still made Jayden smile. He wiped it off when Merrick glared at him; Merrick had been intimidating enough before, but whatever memories he was carrying now made him terrifying. "We'll be careful," he promised. "I'll lock the doors myself."

"See that you do," Merrick warned him.

Antonio waved him off, turning to continue towards their dorm. Merrick stayed where he was, delaying Theo when he followed and allowing them to get to the dorm on their own.

Mia met them, tugging Antonio into a hug. "Cody's asleep," she told Jayden over his shoulder. "Antonio, are you ok?"

"I'm fine, thank you." He took a step back, smiling at her. "Honestly. I'm tired, that's all. Jayden and I are moving to a double room."

"Are we?" Jayden said, startled.

"Aren't we?"

Mia was grinning. "I think I'll let you two sort that out."

"Mia," Jayden said quickly. "There's – Tommy's not very happy, at the moment. We're locking the door; don't let anyone in without checking with us, all right? And don't let Cody leave before we're up, either."

Mia studied them. "Problem?"

"Tommy doesn't like the things we were telling him," Antonio told her. "I'm not worried, but if we don't do something, one of the others will be in here sitting in the doorway, so."

Someone knocked on the outer door. Jayden frowned, glancing at Antonio before turning to open it.

Dom grinned cheerfully at him. "Hey."

"Hello."

"Proposal."

"Go ahead."

He grinned again. "It's my turn on guard. I don't fancy sitting in a corridor all night. You've got spare rooms. I'll trust you to tell me if you're leaving before tomorrow morning or doing any plotting, and you can trust me not to actually pay any attention to whatever you're doing. Plus, you'll know exactly where I am."

"We shouldn't need watching," Jayden pointed out.

"Hence, my offer." He sobered, leaning against the side of the door frame. "Most of us don't think you need watching. But he's still the boss, so we do what we're told. More or less. We're probably not doing it quite as hard as we could be."

Jayden smiled despite himself. "And if Tommy asks why you were inside?"

"I'm really, really smart and I tricked you into it?"

Jayden turned to look at the others. Antonio didn't seem to be paying much attention, but Mia nodded, and he stepped aside and opened the door. "The two rooms just inside here are free."

"Brilliant. See you in the morning, then."

"Dom. This door doesn't open unless one of us opens it, got it?" Jayden locked the outside door, just to emphasize his point.

"Got it," he promised, vanishing into the room and closing the door.

Jayden sighed, looking back at the others. "Let's hope there's no more crises before tomorrow."

"Let's hope," Mia agreed. "Sleep well, you two."


	46. Reluctant Hero

Tommy scowled at the piles of paperwork on his desk, paperwork that hadn't been there yesterday. Passive protests at the way he'd been handling things, no doubt. Well, he knew how to deal with that. "Spencer!"

"He's not there."

Tommy turned, eyeing Jayden. "Where's Antonio?"

"He went fishing. His team picked him up a little while ago."

Tommy grimaced. He'd meant to cancel that; there was no point asking anyone on Antonio's team to keep an eye on him, and he couldn't attach anyone else to it, they'd be noticed. "Right. How can I help you, Jayden?"

"I wanted to talk to you about this before any of this happened; before we left for the academy."

"I remember." He waved Jayden in, clearing one of the guest chairs for him. "What is it?"

"The Ranger title."

"You and Mia are both entitled, yes."

"I know we are. We don't want it. I'll take whatever missions you have for me, but we don't want the title."

Tommy blinked. "Excuse me? Why not?"

"Before any of this happened," Jayden said again, "it was because of Antonio. He's as much a part of the team as either of us, but he didn't get the title. Mia and I don't want something he can't have."

"Jayden, he's not a Ranger."

"Neither are we. We never served. We might never have served. There haven't been any signs of Nighlok emergence, not since my father bound Master Xandred almost fifteen years ago. Antonio trained just as long and hard as we did, and he didn't have to. He's not oathbound. Either all three of us are Rangers, or none of us are. It's up to you."

"I can't make him a Ranger."

"Then none of us are."

"Being a Ranger is a privilege and an honour, Jayden. You want to throw that away for Antonio? You don't think Mia deserves better?"

Jayden lowered his head for a moment before looking back up. "I can't honour one member of my team by dishonouring another. That's not the kind of leader I was raised to be. Mia understands and she agrees."

"I suppose you want Cody to get the title too?"

"No," he said evenly. "Cody's not the same. But Antonio earned the right to it."

"You understand that without the title, you can't use Red Privileges."

"I understand. I don't care about privileges. Send me on whatever missions you want to, and I'll do them. But we will not be Rangers until Antonio is."

Tommy studied him. "And what if the Power comes back tomorrow, and your Nighlok rise?"

"If the Power comes back and the Nighlok rise, I'll be active. And I'll be able to choose what to do with my own team. Active Rangers take precedence over retired, right?" And he smiled, very deliberately.

Tommy shook his head abruptly, turning away. "Spencer!"

Spencer appeared at the door, taking them in in the blink of an eye. "Yes, sir?"

"Make sure Rangers Jayden and Mia are added to the guard rota. Remove Ranger Mia from the school. No," he said over Jayden's protest. "The people of this Mountain need Rangers, they need Rangers to protect them and guide them. I'm not taking two perfectly good Rangers away from them because you're being pedantic over words."

Jayden stood, slowly. "You can't force us to..."

"You've just promised to take any missions I give you. This is your mission."

"Mia works with the children. She likes working with the children. You can't punish her because Antonio and I are saying things you don't like."

"Being a Ranger is a privilege and an honour," Tommy repeated. "It's not something I throw around to punish people with."

Jayden blinked, twice, and Tommy frowned. Something had suddenly changed in the boy, something he'd seen hints of the day Jayden had claimed his Ranger status. "You know that my sister is living in the town. She's asked me to go down there and help her. And if I go, Mia and Cody and Antonio will all come with me." Tommy shrugged, and Jayden added carefully, "And Danny and the others, they'll follow Antonio. His fishing team might even come along. Danny and Merrick's team might follow them, and some of the civilians, even. Wes and Eric are on Danny and Merrick's team, and they control the Silver Guardians. You'll split the Mountain, Tommy."

"You are Rangers," Tommy said quietly.

"No. We're not. Leave Mia with her school kids, make sure no one uses the title, and I'll do whatever jobs you have. But we're not Rangers, Ranger Tommy." He stepped back, holding Tommy's gaze until the moment he turned and left.

Tommy stared sightlessly at his paperwork for a long time.

 

Spencer carefully closed the door, turning to watch Jayden. He was almost vibrating in place, flush with realising he had power still, if in a slightly different way. Spencer smiled, remembering a reaction very like it from Mack, once upon a time.

"Did you mean that?" he asked, taking a single step forward. From the corner of his eye he saw Adam slow as he passed them.

"Every word of it. You haven't seen Antonio with them, not really. Rohan was their leader, their Red. They'll follow where he goes, and Antonio will follow me if I ask him to. If Tommy tries to keep pushing us, we'll go join Lauren down in the town."

"Even if it tears this Mountain apart? Ranger Tommy was correct in one thing; the people here need the Rangers."

"If it tears the Mountain apart, us leaving, then it wasn't going to last much longer anyway. The people here might need Rangers, but they don't need him. Something is _wrong_ with him, and it's getting worse. And I'm not sacrificing Mia or Antonio to find out what it is."

"What's this?" Adam asked.

Jayden shrugged. "Tommy didn't like what I was saying, and he tried to take it out on Mia. And I pointed out that I can take my team, and Antonio's teams, and go join Lauren. He didn't like that much."

"What were you saying that he didn't like?"

"That Mia and I don't want the Ranger title. Antonio can't have it, and we don't feel it's right. He thought I was insulting the title, I think."

"Sounds like something he might think," Adam murmured. "I'll talk to him, I'll make sure he doesn't go near Mia. You don't want the title?"

"I'll do the work. But no. No title."

Adam glanced at Spencer. "Get it done. I'll talk to Tommy."

"Yes, sir," Spencer murmured.

"Thank you," Jayden told them both, turning away.


	47. Dinner

Antonio glanced up as Jayden joined him at the table. "Hey, stranger. I thought you were going to come join us." He grinned at Cody, stealing his drink and offering it to Jayden.

"It didn't seem wise. No, later. How was the catch?"

"Pretty good. Chip fell in, but he seems all right." He waved towards the other end of the table, where Chip was loudly holding court. Jayden leaned towards them, listening.

"...I attempted to smite the mighty waves, but since they were made of water, and Maddie was too busy laughing at me to help, they got the better of me. But only until I found an edge! I leaped from the water and began to collect rocks with which to punish the raging torrent..."

Jayden looked back at Antonio, who was grinning broadly. "He washed up on a beach and kicked some stones in while he was trying to get away from the edge. We had to drag him when we found him."

"Lies," Chip said without looking at them. Maddie was laughing helplessly, collapsed against Vida; Xander was grinning tolerantly.

"Ah, if only Fireheart was around, eh?" he said with a grin. "He'd have plucked you out easy as anything."

Chip frowned thoughtfully. "I dunno. D'you think he'd fit through the opening? It's pretty narrow."

"Are you saying Fireheart couldn't fold himself up when he wanted to?"

Cody shifted, catching Maddie's eye. "Fireheart?"

"Our dragon. Well, Nick's dragon, really. He was in the Forest when it got cut off."

Antonio went very, very still. "You had a dragon?"

"Yeah." Maddie had noticed his reaction; she pushed away from Vida, sitting up and silencing Chip with an absent hand on his arm. "Why? What is it?"

"Something wrong?" Xander added, watching them.

"Not wrong." He leaned back, searching the rooms until he saw Merrick sitting nearby. "No, not wrong."

"What is it?" Jayden asked, waving Cody to come and join him. Cody gave up his seat to Merrick without a word, rounding the table to stand between Jayden and Maddie.

"They have a dragon," Antonio said before Merrick had even sat down.

Merrick blinked, and then frowned. "Do they."

"No," Xander said. "Well, not exactly. He was friends with our Red, but he's stuck in the Forest, we can't get him to this side without magic. Why does this matter?"

"Because Draganta had a dragon," Merrick told him. "Pyre, the Dragon of Dare. Draganta's ally in a thousand battles over the years."

"Our dragon is called Fireheart," Chip said.

"You don't have the dagger," Merrick pointed out, more or less ignoring the others now.

"Doesn't matter. The dagger wasn't important, not by the end."

"Our dragon's called Fireheart," Chip said more loudly.

Antonio looked away from Merrick, focusing on Chip. "It doesn't matter. Pyre was the father of all dragons who came after. His children will acknowledge me for his sake."

"He's in the Forest," Vida said, eyes narrowed. "How do you plan to get him to do anything?"

Antonio grinned, turning back to Jayden. "This is it, Jay."

"This is what?"

"Tommy wanted to know if we could stop The Morrigan. If this works, I think we might be able to. Maybe." He looked at Merrick. "You're still a Ranger. Can you get as many of them as you can outside? Quick as you can?"

"I'll help," Chip offered.

"Yeah." Xander stood. "Just Rangers?"

"Safer in case this doesn't work, yes. Morphers, make sure everyone has their morphers."

"Antonio, what are you doing?" Jayden asked quietly, watching them leave.

Antonio caught his shoulder and dragged him in, kissing him soundly. "The best I can," he said solemnly, letting him go. "Cody, want to see a dragon? Get that friend of yours, too. Troy?"

Cody nodded, darting away. Jayden watched him go, faintly dazed. "Can I help?"

"No. Yes," he corrected himself. "Can you go find Zhane or Carlos? I need beer. Ale."

"Antonio..."

"Not for me, don't worry. But it has to be good beer. Make sure of it." He grinned, standing and crossing to talk to Rocky.


	48. Resistance is Futile

Jayden glanced around as he stepped out of the entrance. Ziggy raised a hand and he jogged over, nodding absently to Danny and Adam. "What's going on?"

"Oh, we're all waiting for Fearless Leader to tell us why we're here. I didn't know you drank."

Jayden glanced down at the bottles in his hands. "I don't. Antonio wants it for something."

"He wants it to call The Morrigan." Ziggy took one of the bottles, twisting the lid off and sniffing it. Making a face, he added, "Although She might not come for that. It's vile. Is that really the best we have?"

"I asked for ale, this is what Zhane gave me. What's wrong with it?" Ziggy handed the bottle back, shrugging, and Jayden blinked. "He's calling The Morrigan? Is that wise?"

"Probably not," Ziggy said, entirely too cheerful. "But then again, it's a foolishly brave plan, so The Morrigan will probably like it. And Antonio – Draganta – he usually gets a pass from Them."

Jayden grimaced, and Ziggy glanced at him. "That bothers you?"

"No. Yes; a little."

Ziggy drew him away a couple of steps. "Talk to Uncle Ziggy."

Jayden smiled faintly. "You're right in the middle of it. You were his..."

"Friend," Ziggy said firmly when he trailed off. "Angus and Rohan were friends. Brothers. We owed each other our lives so many times over we stopped counting – but it wasn't what you have. I never saw Rohan look at anyone the way Antonio looks at you."

"Sometimes you talk like they're separate, and sometimes you talk like they're the same person," Jayden muttered.

"Sometimes they feel closer than other times." Ziggy glanced around as Tommy appeared, already scowling.

"You all know this huge part of him I can't touch," Jayden murmured. "You could all sit down and tell me every second of it all, and I still wouldn't know. I wouldn't understand, not really."

"You don't need to worry about any of that. None of it touches Antonio, and none of it touches you two."

Tommy strode up to them. "Where's Antonio?"

"Still setting up, I suppose," Jayden said politely. "I haven't seen him since he figured out what to do."

Tommy was about to answer when Antonio came towards them from the town, Lauren trailing behind him and Merrick's wolf behind her. "Is everyone here?" he asked, turning to Tommy before anyone answered. "I can't promise this will work, but it might."

"And what is this, exactly?"

"I can't do anything about the anti violence rule. That's out of my hands. But I might, _might_ , be able to get your powers back. You'd probably have to swear a binding oath never to use them against another person, but I think you could manage that."

"How exactly are you going to do that?"

Antonio smiled; Jayden thought he was terrified, underneath. "I'm going to call The Morrigan, and I'm going to bargain with her."

"Bargain with what?" Jayden demanded.

"Nothing we'll miss. Don't worry, Jayden."

"You don't have to..."

"It's me or no one. She won't hear the others. She never did." He grinned at Jayden, deliberately bright. "Is that my ale?"

"You're going to call her by getting drunk?" Tommy asked, adding "Doesn't surprise me," not quite under his breath.

"No." He took the bottles, turning to cross to a small table someone had dragged out. Jayden followed him, aware of the other Knights closing in; if any of them thought he shouldn't be there, intruding on this moment, they didn't say it. Lauren squeezed his hand lightly, smiling at him.

Antonio poured the beer into a bowl on the table, pushed the empty bottles into Jayden's hands, and pulled out a pocket knife. Hampered by the bottles, Jayden didn't manage to react in time to stop him from slashing the side of his hand and letting several drops of blood fall into the bowl. "Antonio!"

"Blood is power, Jayden." Merrick leaned past him, wrapping a strip of cloth around Antonio's hand. "Especially for a war goddess. It's a good sacrifice."

"Don't do that again," Jayden said tightly.

Antonio grinned at him. "Won't need to. It's three drops, Jayden. I'm fine."

"Don't do it again."

The bowl foamed up suddenly, far more foam than the contents should have produced; it spilled over the table, tinting it pink. Antonio watched it almost curiously until it calmed again; then he looked up, meeting the eyes of the woman on the other side of the table. "Morrigu."

"Draganta," she said, just as politely. She looked different this time, Jayden noted, blonde and tall, but the armour was the same, worked all over in what he realised were Celtic designs.

"Thank you for coming."

"I was curious. Very few would dare to call me, even if they knew how." She looked around the group; Jayden, Knights and Tommy clustered around Antonio, Troy and Cody watching from the sidelines, and every Ranger they'd been able to round up spread in a half circle around them. "Do we need witnesses, Draganta?"

"This concerns them."

"How so?"

"And they're still yours; they deserve to hear this."

She smiled faintly. "What is it they're hearing, Draganta? Be careful when you answer."

Antonio nodded, drawing a breath. "They're here to witness you return their power to them."

She studied him for a moment. "They are warriors. Mine. It's my right to withdraw my patronage If I so choose."

"Yes," Antonio agreed. "But the powers were never in your patronage. You've blocked them because you can, not because you should. And I will return them myself if you don't."

The Morrigan laughed. "Draganta was a warrior, not a magician. And were he a magician, he would still have no power here, over this."

"True. But Draganta was one other thing." He grinned, taking a single step forward; Merrick blocked both Tommy and Jayden when they went to follow. "Draganta was a dragon rider."

"Pyre is long dead, Draganta, his bones are dust in the land he once protected."

"But he had offspring," Antonio said softly. "The Fireheart, last of his line, resides in the Mystic Forest, behind the barrier you constructed. If I call him, he will collapse the barrier to get here; he is not under your patronage, you can't prevent him. And once the barrier goes down, all that you've taken from us will be returned. The Rangers' abilities will come back to them, and not just the Rangers but the ninjas and Pai Zhua and everyone else you've blocked as well."

"If Fireheart can break the barrier, why doesn't he?" Tommy demanded.

"Why would he? Nick's on that side."

"But he'll come for you?"

Antonio turned his head to look at him. Fire was burning in his eyes, and Tommy had to stop himself from taking a step back. "He'll come if I call him."

"Is this what you call a bargain?" The Morrigan asked. She looked dangerous, suddenly, fierce and so bright She was hard to look at.

"No," Antonio said easily. "This is my bargain. Return the powers yourself, and the Rangers will swear never to use them against another person, nor against your Warriors. Or make me force them out, and we'll fight you until our last breath."

"Your Rangers cannot defeat my warriors."

"Maybe. But they'll never stop trying. Rangers _don't give up_ , not when there's someone to protect." And he looked very deliberately at Cody and Troy. "Give them back the powers, Anann. Let them use them to live."

The Morrigan considered it, studying the group. "You humans never give up," She said, sounding puzzled. Singling out Jason, She asked, "Would you take the oath?"

Jason hesitated. "We're Rangers. You know what we fight?" The Morrigan nodded, and he continued, "If we were free to fight those threats still, then yes. I'd take the oath."

"Jason!" Tommy protested.

The Morrigan ignored him, looking at Casey. "And you?"

"Like Jason said. As long as we can still protect the world if it needs it."

She looked around the group, studying them before focusing on Jayden. "And you?"

"He's not a Ranger," Tommy pointed out.

"Yes," Jayden said, ignoring him. "I'll swear any oath you want."

"To Lugh Lamhfada, who holds all oaths?"

"Careful," Merrick murmured.

"I'll swear to anyone you want," Jayden said evenly.

The Morrigan took a step back so She could see everyone at once. "First, last, and best-loved have made their promise. Do any object?" Half the heads present turned to Tommy, but he didn't speak, and She nodded briskly. "Is that the extent of your demands, Draganta?"

"I have a request, also," he said steadily.

"Oh?"

"Open Tech Duinn."

Ziggy inhaled sharply. No one else reacted.

"Do you think that would help? They fought and fell bravely."

"They fell, Morrigu. At least give them the choice."

Jayden gripped Ziggy's arm. "What's he doing?"

"Tech Duinn is..." Ziggy waved aimlessly. "It's Irish heaven. Or afterlife. Whatever you want to call it."

"And what's the point in opening it?"

Ziggy grinned. "Because sometimes, just sometimes, people can come back."

"It's almost Samhain," Antonio was saying. "Thin the veil just a little. Allow them the choice. Make them give the oath, too."

"Halloween," Merrick said before Jayden could ask. "When the veil between this world and that thins, and souls can sometimes slip from one side to the other."

"You can return the people who died?" Jayden asked, slightly louder than he meant to.

The Morrigan glanced at him. "I hold no dominion over the dead," She said, sounding almost bored. "And if Donn wakes, I have not seen him."

"Who has?" Lauren muttered. "Reclusive," she added to Jayden.

"Not over the dead," Antonio agreed. "But they were warriors, and all warriors are yours, even through death."

"No," Tommy said abruptly. Adam and Merrick both moved to stop him, but he shook them both off, pushing past Jayden to face The Morrigan. "We do not bow to invaders."

"Who is the invader here? We lived here long before you did, little man."

"Tommy," Jason started.

"We don't bow to invaders! She and her followers have blasted this world back to the stone age, and you want to creep and thank her? No." He turned on Antonio. "Call the dragon. Get our powers back."

"No."

"Antonio...!"

"Draganta. And still no. I won't earn the enmity of The Morrigan if there's any way to avoid it."

The Morrigan eyed him before saying, sounding very bored, "I do not recognise this man as your leader. Who is his second?"

Jason, Rocky and Adam exchanged looks before Jason stepped forward. "I am."

"Jason," Tommy protested.

"Tom, you're tired, man. You've been working too hard for too long. We should have made you stop before now. This is the only way we get our lives back. And maybe our friends, too. We can come out of the Mountain, Tommy."

"No," Tommy murmured, but he didn't object when Adam urged him away.

"He's a good man," Jason said, semi defensive.

"Battle fatigue has taken many better than he," The Morrigan half-agreed. "Will you let him continue?"

"I don't know who else will do it," Jason muttered.

"I do." Ziggy grinned when they looked at him, turning deliberately to look at Lauren.

"What? No," she protested. "Rangers can't be this kind of leader, Ziggy."

"You're not a Ranger, Princess. And you have experience. Twice over, even."

"Kells was an established monarchy," Lauren hissed. "Not a democracy."

Ziggy shrugged. "House Shiba's eighteen generations old. Kells was only three when you inherited. And you've kept your group alive and whole all this time."

"If the Nighlok return..."

"If the Nighlok return, we'll handle it. You have a brother, after all. And if Rangers can't be this kind of leader, that doesn't leave us many options."

Lauren made a face, looking at Antonio. "Well?"

"Just like old times, Princess," he said with a grin.

"Jayden?"

"I would have followed you anyway."

She smiled at him before turning to Jason. "I don't have experience with anything on this scale, but if you'll have me, I'll do my best. And of course I'll take all the help you can give me."

Jason hesitated, and Antonio offered “Deirdre united Kells and Temra after they’d been at war for years. And Lauren was raised not only to lead House Shiba but also to be the Red Ranger.”

Jason glanced at Jayden, who bowed slightly. “I am my sister’s shadow.”

“Lauren said that Rangers don’t make good peace-time leaders,” Antonio continued. “And she was right. But she’s never been active, and she’s trained to lead.”

Jason studied Lauren for a moment. “Your best, huh?”

“Anything I can do.”

"Your best's good enough.”

Antonio glanced at The Morrigan, who'd been watching with something like amusement. "Will you recognise Lauren?"

"I know this one." The Morrigan reached out, pressing one finger to the exact centre of Lauren's forehead. "It's unusual for one to serve me from such a young age. Yes. I will recognise her." She glanced at Antonio. "I have not decided for or against your request, Draganta. But I'll accept your bargain, if each one will swear."

"What oath do you want?"

She shook her head, smiling. "Let each make the oath in his own heart, Draganta, true to himself and his own gods. I will hear."

"Thank you," Antonio said, heartfelt and sincere.

"We will not meet again in this life, Draganta. Be well."

"Be well, Morrigu."

She smiled, spreading her arms wide. She flared bright, suddenly, pure white light blinding everyone present; Jayden blinked away after images to see that she had vanished.

Light flared suddenly to one side, and he glanced over to see a Ranger standing where Adam had been moments before. On his other side, Casey and Dom and Theo changed in almost the same moment, and Ziggy was wearing armour he'd never seen before, and then people were changing faster than he could keep up. Cody's hands were shining bright red, and Lauren was laughing. Tommy was wearing his Dino Thunder uniform.

Jayden closed his eyes and made the oath.


	49. Beginnings

Jayden zipped up his backpack, glancing around the little room. The twinge of regret surprised him. It had never been anything special, after all, apart from being the first room he'd shared with someone he loved.

"Are you done being emotional?" Ziggy called from the corridor.

"I'm packing, Ziggy, not being emotional."

"Tomayto, tomahto," he said, leaning around the frame to grin at him. "How much stuff can you possibly have here, anyway?"

"Not much," Jayden admitted. "Where are the others?"

"You know you need to be more specific than that."

Jayden grinned. Over the weeks he and Ziggy had built up a very strong friendship, initially centering on the fact that they both loved Antonio, if in slightly different ways. They'd discovered they actually got on very well, though; Ziggy kept Jayden from brooding too hard, and when the rest of Jayden's team had re-emerged following the Repowering, Jayden had firmly included Ziggy in almost everything they'd done.

"Start with our others," he said now, "and go from there."

"Mia's helping Emily get ready, and Emily's trying to make sure the kids don't swamp them. Kevin's trying to persuade Mike to spar with him while they're waiting. Antonio's laughing at all of them. Lauren's busy not delegating stuff, and Spencer's busy trying to make her delegate stuff..."

He kept talking as they wound their way through the tunnels and stairwells of the Mountain, describing the Knights, and Antonio's fishing team, and then broadening his scope and talking about all the Rangers. Most of them had moved out of the Mountain by now. Casey's team was back at the Pai Zhua academy, rebuilding out there; Hunter and Tori had gone back to the Wind Academy, and Hunter was getting ready to lead a group on to the Thunder Academy. Most of the older teams were staying in and around Angel Grove, but several of the younger ones were moving back to their respective homes.

And Jayden was leaving. Reports were coming in from a town about a day away of attacks that might be Nighlok related. He and his team were going to check it out and see if they were needed. Ziggy was coming with them; between them, Jayden and Antonio were the closest thing he had to a team, and Jayden liked having someone who could help to hustle Cody and his friend Troy out of the way if necessary. He knew better than to think Antonio would stay out of any fight Jayden was in, and Ziggy could take care of himself now, between Angus' memories and the Samurai training he'd been undergoing.

They came out of the Mountain on the west side. It was still early in the morning and the air was cool and full of shadows. Jayden lifted his head, taking a deep breath; no matter what they did in the Mountain, the air was always just slightly stale and always carried just a hint of damp.

Partway down the slope they passed the Megaship, canted at an angle. Zhane was sitting in an access panel, working on something; he waved as they went past. "Months trying to get through the barrier, not a scratch," he said cheerfully. "One landing and he kills the stabilisers."

"At least he wasn't in your ship," Ziggy pointed out with a grin. The Megaship had all but crashed on the Mountain the day after the Repowering, terrifying civilians who still didn't know what was happening; Andros and the Miranoi team racing out in full morph hadn't helped much, either. Leo was still sulking whenever he thought he could get away with it; after more than a month on the Megaship, trying to get through the barrier, they'd been completely superfluous.

Further down the slope, a group was working with Xander and Maddie to plant crops. Macha was still helping with the harvests, but the Knights thought that would fade over time, as people grew used to their new circumstances. Better to get as much done now as possible. Ziggy waved as they passed; several people, including Tommy, waved back. He was doing much better now, without the weight of the community on his shoulders. He'd even apologised to Antonio for suspecting him, and thanked him for his role in returning their Powers.

True to The Morrigan's word, they hadn't seen her again. They were learning their limitations through trial and error. Radios were all right, but not televisions or cameras. Water purification systems and medical technologies were fine. Lights were all right inside houses, but outside they were barely tolerated. Warriors were still in evidence, though no one had been attacked in weeks. Cars, buses, trucks, none of them were allowed; people had gone back to horses and carts, or bicycles where the roads were clear enough.

Lauren was waiting at the bottom of the slope, talking with Cody and Troy. "Are you sure you don't want me to come?" she asked as soon as they were close enough.

"Hi, sis, I'm fine thanks." Jayden grinned; she stuck her tongue out, leaning into him for a hug.

"Hi, Jayden. How are you doing? Ziggy, still planning on following my idiot brother?"

"You have another brother?" Ziggy asked, wide eyed and innocent. Jayden grinned, and Ziggy high fived Troy and Cody.

"Are you sure?" Lauren asked again, and this time Jayden thought it was Deirdre speaking to Angus.

Mostly, it was easy to forget about the Knights. Jayden hadn't known four of them very well anyway, and Antonio generally seemed the same. If he was sometimes a little more thoughtful, if Jayden sometimes caught Lauren looking to him for confirmation before making decisions – he could ignore those things. Antonio never made an issue of it.

But Merrick and Danny had stayed with Lauren when their team went back to Turtle Cove; Merrick said something about not having anyone to go back to, and Danny hadn't made any excuse at all, just ducked his head and kept working. Lauren was resigned to Antonio following Jayden, but she'd seemed really surprised to hear that Ziggy was going, too.

Ziggy nodded. "I'm sure, Princess."

She studied him for a moment before hugging him tightly. "Take care of my idiot brother, all right?"

"You'll have to tell me who that is."

She made a face at him. "Take care of yourself as well, Ziggy."

He grinned. "See, Princess, I knew you cared."

"He's impossible to talk to, have you noticed?" she asked Jayden.

"I dunno. He makes me laugh."

"Good. You don't laugh enough."

"Antonio makes it his mission in life to make me laugh."

"Someone should."

Spencer cleared his throat from nearby, and Lauren rolled her eyes. "We're not going anywhere until Jayden's team is here, Spencer."

"Then perhaps it's fortunate that I was about to say there they are, coming down."

Jayden looked up the slope, shading his eyes against the sun. "Hey, guys! Are you ready?"

"I am." Mike dropped his bag, sitting on it with a sigh. "Kevin thinks no journey is complete without a really good spar at the beginning. You know, so we're all exhausted while we travel."

"I just pointed out that we don't know what we're walking into," Kevin said defensively. "You might be glad of a little extra practice."

Jayden smiled, looking at the girls. "Are you two ready?"

"Yes." Emily smiled in the direction of his left ear; she hadn't met his eyes once yet, and she was even worse around Lauren. "We're just packing away some of Mia's presents."

"The kids made drawings," Mia told him. 

"You'll have to show me later."

Mia grinned, fishing one out and offering it to Lauren. "I thought you might like this one."

Jayden leaned over to look at it over her shoulder; a drawing of his team, with Ziggy and Lauren and the kids, all laughing as they worked in one of the fields. "That's not a kids' drawing."

"No," Mia agreed easily. "Trent drew it. He gave it to me, but I thought you might like it, Lauren."

Lauren folded it up very carefully before nodding briskly. "Thank you."

"Welcome."

"Where's Antonio?" Jayden asked.

Mike grinned, hauling himself to his feet. "Nick and Fireheart are visiting. He'll be here in a minute."

"Or not." Jayden looked up the slope again; he could just about make out Fireheart near the new field. "I'll go get him. We'll go as soon as I get back."

The sun was hovering just below the edge of the Mountain as he climbed back up. They'd really have to leave soon, or they wouldn't make it to their destination by this evening. He made a mental note to keep an eye on Emily; she was younger than the rest of them, and he wasn't sure of her limits.

Antonio was leaning comfortably against Fireheart's forearm, chatting with Nick. Jayden stopped a prudent distance away; Fireheart wasn't dangerous, but he was very, very large, and often unaware of anyone but his Riders. "Antonio!"

"Hey, Jayden." Antonio grinned at him. "Am I late?"

"Not quite. Morning, Nick."

"Morning," Nick replied. "Listen, man, I'd offer you a lift, but..."

"Too many of us for Fireheart. It's fine; we have plenty of time, assuming Antonio can stir himself to join us."

"So sarcastic, Jayden. You weren't like that as a child." He turned, patting Fireheart's leg and stepping away. "I'll see you around, Nick."

"Hey, you guys need help, you call for Fireheart. We'll be along."

Jayden raised a hand to him and turned, heading back down slope. The sun was finally up behind them and their shadows stretched ahead of them. "Good, maybe it'll warm up a little now."

Antonio's hand slid into Jayden's and he squeezed lightly before letting go. "We'll be fine. It's not that far away. And you can always make a fire if we need it."

"Good to know I'm useful for something," Jayden said lightly, glancing down towards the others.

He hesitated, coming to a halt; Antonio paused beside him, frowning. "What's wrong?"

"Someone's coming." He pointed; Antonio followed his gaze, seeing a large group of people, featureless in the sunlight. "Who is it? No one's west of us."

Antonio laughed suddenly, throwing his arms around Jayden for an exuberant hug. "She did it. I knew She would. Jay, this is perfect."

"What? What is it?"

Antonio grinned, heading down the slope at a run. Over his shoulder, he called out "It's the first of November. Today is Samhain."

Jayden stood very still for a moment, letting that sink in; then he laughed, chasing Antonio down towards the mass of their returning friends.

**Author's Note:**

> I used the prompts from PRAU100 as chapter titles. However, this fic does not have 100 chapters. The left over prompts will be used for side stories and the possible sequel.


End file.
